Let Me Take You Far Away
by Oliver Vertran
Summary: (Under reconstruction! 5/30 done) Rejected by her love, her father and her clan, Hyūga Hinata doesn't know how to keep living in the village where everyone seems so happy shortly after the ending of the Fourth Great Ninja War... everyone but her. As per usual, when one is completely desperate, the solution comes from the most unexpected side. Mostly follows canon 'till ch. 699.
1. A Ruined Life

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything I didn't create myself. All the characters and the Naruto universe belong to Masashi Kishimoto.  
**

* * *

 _I've come to paint the sky white and black_  
 _And when the morning comes I won't be looking back_  
 _I know there's still beauty in the colors left to see_  
 _Somewhere inside I'll find the other half of me..._  
 _ **  
**− **Born of Osiris**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1. A Ruined Life.**

It was probably going to be the best evening of her life. At least Hinata was sure it would be. She couldn't imagine ever feeling any better.

Why?

Because they'd won the war. Madara was gone, and Naruto was alive. In fact, almost everyone she cared for had managed to live through this nightmare... almost.  
She didn't want to think about Neji at the moment. Not now, not like this, when everybody around her was celebrating their victory and survival. She would take her time to mourn her deceased brother a little bit later, whenever she'd be able to do this alone, for there was absolutely no way for it to happen right now, with _them_ being around.

Kurenai, Kiba and Shino. Her team. Her only friends. They were standing there with Hinata at the central square of the rebuilt village of the Hidden Leaf. All the four of them were attending a huge festival, easily the most spectacular one she'd ever seen.

Such scale wasn't surprising; in fact, somehow she'd have expected it to be even bigger and much more grand than it was, because... well, how could it be any less than that?

Their world was safe now. They'd all been by her very comrades, Team Seven. And of course, these ones received most attention from everyone.

Except for the Uchiha.

She would never admit it to anyone, but Hinata actually feared him. Not that she still considered the shinobi an enemy, no. Naruto had told everyone that this young raven haired man − she just couldn't bring herself to call him a boy, even though he was only so much older than her, knowing everything she knew about him and his past − had saved their lives. Everyone's, as a matter of fact − instead of leaving them all in the Infinite Tsukuyomi for good, or even murdering them like, they presumed, he had intended to do originally. In the end the Uchiha had made his choice, and it was _them_ he'd chosen.

He'd returned to Konoha.

But the village hadn't exactly welcome him. People were tolerating his presence at best, but that was it. Nothing more. Everything from his name to his boots was disliked there to say the least.

He didn't look bothered by this fact at all, though.

The man was standing on top of the Hokage residence which her team was currently resting nearby. He was gazing at the horizon, seemingly lost in his thoughts − apparently, he didn't care one bit about whatever was going on around. Hinata couldn't help but stare at the Uchiha, enchanted by his frightening mystique, not listening to her teammates' carefree jabbering at all.

His features sure were beautiful for a man. Although she'd never done that herself, Hinata understood now why every girl in her class had constantly chased the avenger back in the years of the academy − some of them still did, even now, after so many years... after all those horrible things he'd done. Fortunately or not, looks weren't something that interested the Hyūga girl when it came to the opposite sex. That, however, didn't mean that she wasn't able to estimate someone's attractiveness, especially when it was so apparent.

Although his appearance wasn't what dominated her thoughts whenever she looked at him, of course. Ever since he'd rejoined them on the battlefield, announcing his intention to protect Konoha and to become the next Hokage, she couldn't help but think from time to time on the enigma that Uchiha Sasuke was.

To her he was completely blank. Even though she could literally see everything inside of him thanks to her special eyes, Hinata was absolutely unable to read this person she watched carefully every now and then. Her only reason to believe in his good intent was Naruto's word − the boy she adored and loved trusted the Uchiha with his life. It was beyond question for him. And she did trust the blond's judgement too − after all Naruto was the only one, save for maybe Sakura and their new Hokage, Hatake Kakashi, who could say that he truly knew the Uchiha heir.

And if Naruto put his trust in him then Hinata would do the same, too. But she couldn't help the anxious thoughts flowing through her head. For some reason, they disturbed her whenever she looked at this man. What was he thinking, looking so distant and lonely in the middle of this jovial chaos of the celebration? Why did he look so indifferent and cold when everyone else around him was so happy?

On top of that, he looked scary. His hair'd grown wild, much unlike what it was during his childhood as she could remember from their years in the academy, reminding her nowadays of his ancestor with whom Hinata was quite familiar − Uchiha Madara.

His movements were always smooth, yet keen at the same time, quite like those of a deadly snake. The Rinnegan in his left eye that he either never bothered to or, which for some reason seemed more plausible to her, simply couldn't deactivate, made the resemblance even more dreadfully clear.

There'd been too many painful events in her life associated with this dōjutsu that she could never forget. And even though it was considered legendary, the gift of gods... to her, it was a nightmare. Quite literally, being completely honest, as this ripple pattern'd been stalking the girl and making her wake up in cold sweat in the middle of nearly every night ever since the day of Pain's invasion.

She wasn't aware of how and when exactly Sasuke'd acquired it, but with this eye the young ninja reminded her of Madara even more. And when the girl thought about it, being as observant as she was, the connection between the two of them seemed to be stronger than that from just being born to the same clan. It was in their expressions, in the way both of them moved, in the way they spoke. Perhaps Sasuke was more than only distantly related to the man who'd started the war, but was, in fact, his direct heir?

Hinata didn't know, and she wasn't sure if she really wanted to find out either. The man was scary enough as he was right now.

Fortunately, he never noticed her stares. Not that it was somehow surprising to her − people rarely noticed the girl at all. And she was fine with it.

Well... almost.

She would like her beloved one to notice her for once.

Turning her head and smiling softly at the pleasant smell of bakery that was flooding the square, she found him in the crowd almost instantly. The blond was currently dancing with his teammate, Haruno Sakura, accompanied by loud folk music, laughs, shouts and clapping of people around them, cheering on the famous pair.

The Hyūga girl liked the female member of Team Seven, but she still couldn't help the jealousy that overwhelmed her whenever she saw how happy they looked together.

"Oi, Hinata! Come on, you should try this! Stop being dull, let's have some fun!" Kiba gave her a glass with some liquid, and she, giving him a distant nod as she was still deep in thought, drank it all in one gulp without checking what exactly was in there.

She better shouldn't have.

Coughing and hugging her chest, the dark haired girl dropped the glass inadvertently, jumping up from the bench and attempting to catch her breath. What in the name of heaven was that swill...?

"Easy, easy! Come on, softie, it can't be that bad, can it?" The Inuzuka laughed at her, slapping her back lightly to help her overcome this sudden... feeling.

She'd never tried alcohol before.

Her head began swirling a bit, but somehow Hinata felt more funny than bad now, and way more courageous than just a few moments ago. She looked up at the Uchiha again and smiled.

 _Come on, it can't be that bad._ After all, she'd promised herself that she'd stop being such a coward. She must face her fear once in a while!

Quickly apologizing to her teammates, she picked a piece of strawberry cake from the plate that was resting on their bench and walked towards the rebuilt Hokage residence, trying not to bump into someone accidentally which was likely to happen in her current state.

What was she going to say to him? Probably not much, but Hinata really wanted to overcome her fear of the Uchiha and, for some weird reason, she also wanted to see him smile, as foolish as it was.

But he deserved it, after all, didn't he? He'd saved everyone. Including her. A cake, as a gesture of gratitude, couldn't possibly hurt, could it?

Still deep in her thought, the girl carefully walked the ladders that led to the roof of the building, finally getting up, only to flinch in surprise as she gazed perplexedly at the spot where Sasuke was just a minute ago.

Instead of him, Uzumaki Naruto stood there, scratching his nape perplexedly and staring anxiously in the direction of the abandoned and, thanks to Pain, currently half-ruined Uchiha clan's district. The boy looked notably sad - apparently he'd approached Sasuke and the Uchiha didn't want to share a talk with his friend.

"N-Naruto-kun...?" she mumbled quietly in surprise, taking a step towards the blond jinchūriki.

He turned to look at her, the smile returning to his face the instant he noticed the shy girl.

"Yo, Hinata-chan! What's up? Why did'ya come up here?" he asked curiously as he walked toward her.

She stopped, unsure what to do with the cake. Should she tell him about her initial intention or not?

He came close enough to notice her blushing terribly. But it didn't surprise him, of course − it was just Hinata, after all. "Are you alright?" he added, giving the girl a soft, reassuring smile.

"Um..." she started, as always feeling utterly insecure in his presence. She hadn't expected to see him here at all. The initial plan that the Hyūga'd formed in her head while she was getting to the roof was now rapidly disappearing in the whirlwind of various emotions.

At least the alcohol in her blood helped a bit.

Before he could say something again, the girl raised her head vigorously, looking directly into those deep blue eyes of his.

"Naruto-kun... I wanted to ask you−" she stopped again, not exactly sure how to put it.

"What is it, Hinata-chan?" He smiled even more widely and cheerfully now, encouraging her to continue.

Her white eyes widened a bit. Could it be that this was it? The moment she feared and waited for so long, imagined so many times...?

"I−I w-wanted to ask you−if you r-remember what I told you b-back then−when−when we fought P-Pain..." her voice dropped by the end of the question as she was unsure how to continue. Her face was now as red as a ripe tomato and she clenched her teeth, trying desperately to not faint of the stress.

"Oh," was all he said and his smile suddenly disappeared, which made her heart skip a beat.

Did she do something wrong...?

She looked up at him with a frightened expression, terribly afraid that she could've just spoiled it all somehow.

There was a moment of awkward silence which neither of them seemed to want to break. He looked confused − apparently he hadn't forgotten that... accident, which she was afraid he would.

The boy finally opened his mouth then, uttering quietly,

"Yea. I do."

Hinata peered at him searchingly, waiting for the blond to continue. She'd never seen him looking so uncomfortable before. Hear trembling heart was so full of hope, but it was now clear that he'd been avoiding this conversation for so long... why?

The answer was obvious.

"Hinata-chan... I understand your feelings, I truly do. But, well−"

She felt her heart skipping another beat.

"You see, I like someone else... Sakura-chan, y'know."

Hinata's hands started shaking slightly as her eyes were filling with tears to the point where she could barely see anything clearly.

"Sorry, I just don't feel that way about you, Hinata-chan. But we're great friends, right? I'll never stop being your friend, I promise! Believe it!" he exclaimed cheerfully, but the girl never heard the ending of his phrase − her ears suddenly became deaf, not a sound breaking through, as if an explosive tag'd just been triggered next to her.

She couldn't even hear her own voice as she said distinctly, sounding surprisingly calm:

"S-sure, Naruto-kun... I'm s-sorry, I need to go now." The cake Hinata was holding fell onto the surface of the roof as the girl turned away from the blond who now looked worried and sorry, but not daring to follow her.

 _Or rather not willing to_ , she thought. Well, why would he? She always was just a burden to him, failing to help the boy whenever she tried to. Moreover, she wasn't a burden just to him personally, but to everyone else as well. She knew it for sure.

And now, wiping her streaming eyes on her jacket's sleeve while her numb legs were barely able to let her stand straight, the Hyūga girl knew it − she'd always known, despite attempting not to think about it.

She was _laughable_.

Hinata never noticed how her feet brought her back to her room in the seemingly empty at the moment Hyūga compound. Apparently she was the only Hyūga that wanted to go home so early in this special evening. But that only made things better for her. She wanted to stay alone, to calm down and to let her mind heal itself, just like it always did whenever she got hurt.

Falling onto the humble bed in the corner of the room, Hinata hugged her pillow and sobbed.

Why? Just why was this all happening to her...? Always to her...

The girl kept crying, blaming herself for all the bad things that happened in her life, absolutely sure that nobody could hear her.

Well, who possibly could? She was the only loser that could stay in such pathetic state today of all days. Wasn't she supposed to be grateful for being alive and not being enslaved in the world of everlasting illusions? Wasn't she supposed to appreciate the fact that her clan, her village, and everyone else didn't have to suffer such horrible destiny either? Why was she feeling like her world was being torn apart _now,_ and not a few days ago, when they all were still captured inside Madara's jutsu?

The girl couldn't answer these questions, and this fact was making her hate herself even more than she usually did.

That was when she realized that she actually deserved it all. Because no matter how hard she tried, despite all her strive, despite everyone trying to aid her to finally grow a spine and to become strong... Inside of the matured shell she was still the same shy and fragile twelve years old girl who feared to talk to her peers and to even look at her superiors. Was there even a point in adding that she considered basically everyone superior to her...?

And what had given her such a ridiculous belief that a failure like her could ever ask for happiness in their world? In the world where only strong ones survived, weaklings like her didn't deserve anything. They were merely dirt under feet of those who were better than them. That's how things always worked anyway. For instance, Uchiha Sasuke was the prime testament to this. And Naruto, too, albeit he had yet to realize it...

Turning her head a bit, she reached up and took the doll from her table − her birthday present to Hanabi which her sister'd refused to accept. Hinata'd created this doll with her own hands, but for some reason her younger sibling didn't like it, saying that such toys were of no use for a kunoichi.

She understood that Hanabi's decision was justified. She, Hinata, was the only one in their entire clan stupid enough to come up with something as juvenile. It was just a waste of time. And yet, some part of the teen, deep inside, felt really hurt.

Even her own sister rejected her...

Was that any unfair? Hardly. Because Hinata knew they had every right to treat her this way. She was a disgrace to the glorious clan. Weak, shy, soft, clumsy, and stupid; what could she possibly expect them to do and think about her? The sole fact that she, Hinata, was going to lead their clan in a few years had to be ridiculous and disgusting to them. What leader could she make anyway, for the sake of the Will of Fire...?

But that wasn't exactly what made it so bitter. The fact that she actually _tried_ did. She wasted everything, all her energy and time on trying to become better... for their sake. And she'd become better, hadn't she...?

Feeling another burst of tears incoming, she hugged the doll and buried her face in the pillow again.

No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried to improve, she was still a disappointment to everyone. To Hanabi, to her clan... to Neji.

To Naruto.

What was she going to do now? What was the point in trying any further? Apparently all these years of training and education, they didn't give her anything. She'd achieved nothing. Was she even capable of being a kunoichi, a leader, a Hyūga?

A woman...?

It seemed like there was no way out. Her whole life was a joke. Just some cruel joke of fate...

But she couldn't simply give up, could she? Until she was completely cornered she would keep trying. She still had her clan to care for. Her family. Her village.  
She couldn't simply forget about them. They always did everything for her, and she had to repay them for that.

And then there was the knock on the door.

Raising head in surprise, she wiped her tears as fast as she could, quickly getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed. Hinata tried to make herself look decent in front of her clansman, whoever it was behind the door. For some reason, the idea of checking the person's identity with her Byakugan never crossed the girl's mind.

"E-Enter!" she squeaked, cursing herself for how pathetic it sounded.

The door slid open and the tall figure with long, straight brown hair, dressed in a formal white kimono, entered her room silently.

Hyūga Hiashi. Her father.

He eyed her up and down, impassive as always. Why did he come here now anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be dealing with some important things if he wasn't celebrating the victory with everyone? Her father never wasted time on anything unworthy. Whatever reason brought him to her now, it was something very serious, without a doubt.

She then realized belatedly that it obviously had something to do with her. Was she in trouble?

Hinata looked at him sheepishly, unsure if she should open her mouth first.

"Daughter." His eyes didn't give away anything at all.

"Father..." she nearly whispered, afraid of whatever he was going to say. When it came to him, it was never anything good.

Hiashi waited a little bit, eyeing her thoughtfully as though he felt conflicted inside, which was very unusual for him.

"I have come to tell you something important regarding your future."

Her future? What could it possibly be? Was he going to bring some special new training upon her? Was it for the purpose of her becoming a better leader as soon as possible? It had to be something among these lines. After all, her father was a tired man, and the war'd drained a lot of his energy. He deserved some rest for his efforts.

"What is it, father?" she asked quietly, not really wondering about the specifics at the moment, yet too polite and submissive to show her disinterest in any way.

He was silent again for a few seconds, and that was what made her wary. It was too unlike Hyūga Hiashi to be hesitant in general, and especially so when it came to dealing with his hapless daughter.

And then he finally said it:

"The council of our clan has decided that you are not suited for the role of our leader. Hanabi is going to take your place as my heir. Furthermore, since you have already been taught so many secrets of the Main House, you will have receive the seal. This will occur this morning, in a few hours from now. Be prepared." He turned away without looking at her and walked out of the room, leaving his daughter as lonely as she'd been prior to his appearance.

So that was it. It'd taken them long enough, but it finally happened.

They'd decided that she was unworthy.

Not only Naruto. Her own family thought so, too.

She sighed, covering her face with her shaking hands.

There was no one in this village who believed in her anymore.

* * *

A few hours later, when it was already close to dawn, Hinata was sitting on the ground near the Memorial Stone of Konoha, hugging her knees and sobbing quietly. The best day of her life suddenly became its worst. Was it surprising? Hardly. It could surprise anyone but her, Hyūga Hinata.

Because she was an utter loser.

No, this fact alone didn't bother her all that much. She was also a very kind person, and so long as those she loved were alive and happy she could bear the misfortunes fate brought upon her from time to time, here and there. However, she still had to deal with the pain it always caused to her. For as long as she could remember, the girl'd been trying to hide it as hard as she could, and up to this very moment she'd been doing a great job at that. Nobody'd noticed her leaving the fest, nobody knew she was here now. Father was most likely sure that she was still sitting in her room, doing nothing useful as usual.

After her conversation with Naruto she'd decided to visit her late brother. He was the only person she'd ever trusted enough to open up to a little bit, telling Neji about the things she'd never discussed with anyone else. And now that he was dead Neji was an even better listener to her as he wouldn't be worried no matter what she told him, retaining the peace of the afterlife.

She always hated making him worry.

That's what she told herself whenever she'd fought the urge to cry as she thought of the injustice of his death. It should have been her instead of him. He was far better than her in literally everything. As a ninja, as a Hyūga, as a friend.

Fate was truly so cruel and twisted...

In fact, there wasn't even a grave for Neji yet – just a tiny memorial plank with his name on it. Although the ceremony of mourning the war's victims had already taken place earlier, the burial of Konoha's fallen ninjas was only going to happen tomorrow, after everyone'd celebrated their so hard-won victory. There were just too many corpses − nobody wanted to do the job now when they craved this feast of life so much.

That was why Hinata was there now, alone and completely broken. Nobody would come here, even if they decided to look for her for whatever bizarre reason they could possibly have for it.

She sniffled, rubbing her eyes with her palms before hugging her knees.

Who was she trying to fool anyway? Hadn't she expected such an outcome? Hadn't she known how Naruto would react to her confession? Hadn't she truly realized that he didn't love her? That he would never return her feelings...? Had she honestly not expected the elders to decide to put the seal on her at some point?

Deep inside she had, and that was what hurt the girl the most. Right now she was closer to believing in Neji's words concerning fate than ever before. Those things he'd said to Naruto back when they were kids, during the chūnin exam years ago...

It turned out that her brother'd been correct back then. She was a loser, and she was clearly destined to remain as such forever.

Naruto, on the other hand, despite the popular opinion of him, was a true winner. Only a completely blind person could still deny it by now. Sometimes it seemed as if he had some miraculous shield of fate that always protected him from losing, helping him overcome every obstacle on his way at the end of the day, to become even better than he was prior his failure, rising up from the ashes every single time people thought he was finally broken.

They called Sasuke, his rival, the winner... and Naruto the loser?

That was nonsense; right now she saw it more clearly than ever before. Furthermore, come to think about it, the Uchiha was probably one of the most tragic persons she'd ever known... or rather met, for she couldn't say that she really knew him at all.

Still, the man'd lost his parents, his entire clan, his childhood, and some people were certain that he'd lost his sanity as well. After all, he'd spent his entire life chasing after his brother and killed the last one of his relatives with his own hands only to find out later on that Itachi'd been manipulated by one of Konoha's elders named Danzō. Sasuke'd also joined Akatsuki only to realize what they'd truly planned to do achieve ultimately, and to stop them later. And then, on top of everything else, he'd sought revenge against Konoha... only to end up in the village he had every right in the world to hate with great passion.

Yes, although Hinata'd never really hated anyone, she understood the concept and hence she could also understand the miraculous man's feelings at least to an extent. Not to mention that there was probably a lot of stuff she didn't know about his past, too. After all, she could only rely on Naruto's words when it came to the Uchiha, and she didn't believe any rumors and gossips. They told mostly bad things about him, but even if some of them were true she didn't blame him at all.

He was just another victim of fate, though a far stronger one than her.

Thinking about her former classmate made Hinata hate herself even more, if that was even possible. Because even after all these horrible things that'd happened to the Uchiha, he wasn't _broken_. He seemed a bit lost and dazed after returning to Konoha, but other than that he still stood strong, not even remotely looking defeated or shattered by the cruel hand of his destiny. He was a true shinobi, so much unlike her.

He could _endure_.

And she − she was crying like a child, as though her life was over after being rejected by a boy.

Ridiculous.

Sure, she was also in pain after Neji's death, but there was probably not a single person in Konoha who hadn't lost someone close in this war.

Beside that, she was simply _terrified_ by the fact that her clansmen were going to put the seal on her; the same seal the biggest part of her clan'd been wearing since the day they were born without any complains. And yet, she'd never seen them breaking like she was at the moment.

She was _pathetic_.

Grasping the wet grass under her palms, Hinata gritted her teeth, trying to calm down and stop shaking.

There had to be a way out. She just knew there was one. Thinking of Neji couldn't possibly solve her problems. Not now, not ever. Naruto couldn't help her either. He'd already helped her more than she could ever ask of him for, actually − he'd taught her not to give up no matter what.

Hinata opened her eyes and clenched her fists.

She wouldn't. Giving up was not an option. Not for her.

But what could she possibly do now? That was the million ryō question. She wasn't able to come up with a solution on her own no matter how much she tried to...

And then the sudden and shocking realization hit the girl; the pieces of the puzzle that'd been swirling around her in those past few days finally formed a picture in Hinata's mind.

If there was a single person in this world that could help her find the answer, it had to be _that_ man. Fate itself had been driving her to him, she just hadn't realized it until this moment, refusing to see all those signs. Refusing to figure out why his image and his story filled her thoughts a lot more than what she'd normally consider appropriate.

He was the only person who had overcome some unbelievably terrible things in his life, who knew how to deal with misfortunes like hers and who was within her reach.

Uchiha Sasuke.

She needed to find him!

Slowly getting up and wiping the wet dirt off her pants, the girl activated her Byakugan.

He wasn't anywhere around, obviously. And she had no idea where he could possibly be at such time.

But there was no better option. That's why she ran straight ahead towards the center of Konoha where her range of view would be able to cover the whole village. It was already nearly morning, so Hinata realized that she had to hurry up – she needed to find him as soon as possible so that they could talk before her destiny'd get sealed.

Crossing the main street that led to the gates of the village, the girl suddenly stopped as she noticed something familiar not far away from her.

 _There!_ There he was, to her left. Not so close either, but she could see him clearly from this distance. The Uchiha was wearing a humble black cloak, and there was a sword on his back – much like the one he'd had during the war; his wild hair was being slightly ruffled by the light morning breeze that felt like a frosty wind to Hinata at the moment, making her tremble even more.

His expression was emotionless and calm as usual.

The man was talking to the Sixth and Sakura - the three of them were standing near the main entrance of the village.

And for some reason the pink haired kunoichi looked quite upset.

Deciding that it was none of her business, Hinata stormed towards them as fast as she could. She turned away from the main road, trying to avoid getting seen by anybody, just in case.

 _Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up...!_

Apparently the three former teammates ended their talk rather quickly, seeing as Sasuke turned around and started walking away from them after committing something that seemed like a... gesture of affection...?

Hinata frowned, nearly stopping for a second. It was unusual to say the least, seeing him with a different, warmer expression like this. Even if it was barely notable, the smile was still there nonetheless as he tapped Sakura's forehead lightly with his fingertips.

Had she even seen him smile before at all...?

And now he was walking away from the village... while Sakura was crying.

So he'd decided to leave again, after all...!

Running over the massive, high wall that surrounded Konoha, the Hyūga jumped down, ignoring the painful whips of numerous twigs on her face and wading through the ancient trees while, at the same, time trying not to get too far away from the road the Uchiha was walking. She didn't want anyone to see them together − Hinata intended to talk to him in private.

And just as she decided that it was private enough and shifted her direction a bit to get closer to Sasuke, she noticed _him._

Naruto stood there, leaning against a tree just a few yards from her current position, apparently waiting for his friend.

She stopped, panting, and waited, trying to catch her breath while studying the two of them carefully. Surprisingly enough the friends shared only a few quiet words before parting and walking the opposite directions − Naruto went back to Konoha, and Sasuke continued heading away from the village. She couldn't hear them from this distance, and although Hinata'd been taught to read lips with her Byakugan, she decided not to. It wasn't like she wanted to overhear them anyway, because they clearly didn't meet away from the village and their teammates for no reason.

She had her own business with the Uchiha right now in any case.

But watching them with her dōjutsu and seeing the way they parted, she realized that this was a goodbye, and a friendly one. Sasuke was leaving Konoha for real, and this time, surprisingly enough Naruto didn't seem to mind it at all.

Hinata frowned, pursing her lips and thinking frantically.

Perhaps she should leave, too? What was there remaining for her in the village anyway? The boy who couldn't care less about her feelings and probably considered her a miserable idiot? The clan that openly despised her? The teammates that laughed at her whenever she ashamed herself with her clumsiness?

The 'real' friends that most likely didn't even exist, just like the future she'd fantasized about...?

Now that she thought about it, there was absolutely nothing holding her in Konoha anymore, aside from her cowardice. Did she want to get the damned seal on her forehead? _Hell no –_ she was shy and submissive, of course, there was no denying this fact. But that wasn't enough for her to just accept such a horrible thing as though it weren't a big deal. To her, it was probably the most fearful thing ever since her childhood.

Deep inside, she'd always been afraid of her brother's destiny as well as that of his fellow Branch House members.

Because she knew that she deserved it more than any of them.

And this was the deciding factor for her at the moment.

She needed to leave. Now. If not now, then never. She was a coward; she knew she wouldn't be able to find the required willpower to do it in future. This was her only chance.

And... speaking of leaving, following the Uchiha right now seemed to be the best opportunity she could ever hope for. He knew everything about leaving the village, didn't he...? He could teach her what to do. If only she managed to convince him to...

Then again, now that she'd finally realized why exactly she felt so puzzled whenever her thoughts turned to this man... Something deliberately brought her to him, of that she was sure now. He was the only person in the whole world who could help her. Who could understand her. Who could... possibly fix her?

She was surprised by her own sudden audacity and resolve. It made Hinata smile for the first time after many long hours of crying and mourning Neji as well as her own failed life.

She finally found the right path. It just _had_ to be that.

Walking along the road as she followed Sasuke through the trees, Hinata watched him carefully, not sure how she was supposed to approach the gloomy shinobi. He didn't seem to notice her − either she was very stealthy, which she doubted, or he was just too deep in his thought to pay attention.

What was she going to say to him anyway?

 _Hello, I'm Hyūga Hinata, please tell me how to stop being a wimp!_

She cringed a bit. So embarrassing... Her goal was so close, yet she didn't even know what to do with it now.

And then he suddenly stopped, almost making her squeak and hicсup in surprise as he looked directly at the spot where the girl was standing behind the big oak.

"Show yourself. I know you're there. There's no point in hiding now."

 _Busted_. There was no way out of it anymore.

Taking a deep breath, she took a slow step out from behind the trees, walking obediently towards the Uchiha. There was no danger in his tone, but at the same time it was so... demanding. The thought of running away didn't even cross her mind as she heard his deep, soft voice.

Coming out of the shadows, she avoided looking into his eyes, waiting for his reaction. Would he even listen to her? Did he even remember her name...?

"You...?" came the surprised comment.

Alright, he recognized her, which meant that he did, in fact, remember her. But now she was already unsure if that was good thing for her.

"Your name is Hinata, isn't it? What do you want from me?"

 _Come on, you can't embarrass yourself any further. Talk, stupid... talk now!  
_  
But she couldn't force herself to open her mouth and utter a single word. She didn't know how to tell him... how to make him understand...!

"Look, if you came to ask me to come back because of the idiot – I won't. Naruto is aware why I'm leaving, and–" She bit her lip, feeling the bitter taste of her own blood, and hurried to shake her head, interrupting him, which made the man look confused and irritated.

So this was what he thought? How truly pathetic was she if the only reason he could possibly associate with her approach was _Naruto_?

But, come to think about it, that was only fair. She deserved worse.

"Then what the hell do you want? Talk already!" He was clearly losing his patience with her. Well, who wouldn't...?

"I−Uchiha-san, I–" It was now or never. _Come on, Hinata! You can make it!_ "I want to go with you. Please, let me!"

* * *

The first rays of morning sun lit up the Hokage Monument towering over Konoha, marking the beginning of a new day. A few early birds were already lazily showing up on the streets of the village, leaving their houses for whatever reason, be it work, training, studying or just their sentiment to go for a walk. But the majority of people still rested in their peaceful sleep. It seemed as if nothing could ever ruin the tranquility that embraced everyone in the Hidden Leaf village that beautiful morning.

And that would be correct.

The greatest war the ninja world had ever witnessed had ended just two days ago. But nobody seemed to be neither rested enough yet, nor to be over what happened during that catastrophe everyone called 'war'. It was perfectly understandable, of course. Nothing so destructive had ever happened in their world before, at least as far as they were aware.

Which was why nobody, not even the deadliest criminals, dared to disturb the fragile peace everyone craved so much.

That's probably also why the Sixth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi, was in his best mood in spite of the pretty sad event he was currently participating in. Sad not only for him alone, but for everyone in Team Seven.

But that was it. The four of ninja. Nobody aside from their bunch really cared. Not that Kakashi seemed to mind it, though. If anything, it was probably a relief to people of his village since most of them still felt uneasy with _him_ around.

"Well, I'll be honest with you. Under normal circumstances you'd be imprisoned for life. The only reason why you've been pardoned is because of your assistance in undoing the Infinite Tsukuyomi and ending this war. Try to not to forget, however, that all of this is thanks to Naruto. He's the hero of this war and well... I did put in a few words as the Sixth Hokage, too. So take it easy and don't go crazy on me again. It'll be my head they'll take this time."

Sasuke's face remained calm and blank as he said in response:

"Yeah... sorry." Despite his usual emotionless expression, Kakashi's former student was sure the gray haired man could feel that he was being sincere.

"...you're leaving already? Tsunade-sama's just about to complete your artificial arm with the First Hokage's cells," muttered the pink haired girl − Sakura, another teammate of theirs, lowering her jade eyes sheepishly. She'd already learned that nothing could stop the Uchiha once he'd decided to do something, which was obviously the case right now. But the girl still didn't want to let him go. After waiting for him to return for so many years... He was finally there with them, without any ill intent towards Team Seven or Konoha.

And he was going to leave them. _Again_.

What a nuisance.

"I... need to see it for myself. How the world looks." That was probably one awkward reason to her, but she wasn't going to argue with the boy, apparently. Besides, she'd tried that a few times before, so she knew that it never led to anything good.

Yet still, he, for once, decided to elaborate.

"All those things I've overlooked, I have a feeling I'd be able to see them better now. And if I miss this chance... I don't think I will get another one. Plus, there are a few things that have been bothering me. I need to check them out."

So that was it. For the first time in her life Sakura looked like she finally understood him. But it certainly didn't make it feel any better for her.

Still unable to look at him directly, the kunoichi nearly whispered,

"What−what if I told you−that−I'd like−to come−too...?" She finally found the courage to meet his impassive gaze.

The Uchiha closed his eyes.

"It's my road to redemption. You have nothing to do with my sins."

Sakura sighed sorrowfully, lowering her head and shoulders in defeat.

"Nothing to do, you say...," she muttered, closing her eyes too in a futile attempt to suppress the tears.

But then she suddenly flinched and looked up, feeling the light tap of his fingertips on her forehead.

He smiled, looking into her tear stained eyes.

"I'll see you soon."

She was unable to look away, hypnotized by his own eyes which were, for once, soft and gentle.

"…thank you."

Her cheeks reddened. He knew that Sakura wanted to say something in return, but he'd already turned away from them, and walked out of the gates of Konoha.

He was leaving them. Leaving her.

But he would definitely return, wouldn't he...? At least that was certainly his intention. Hence there was no reason for any of them to worry.

That was also the sole thought that saved Sakura from sobbing as she looked at his back one last time. Somehow she was feeling like she had a déjà vu. Even though she knew that things were different now, she couldn't help feeling pain from the memories of him leaving the village years ago.

But, just like Konoha itself, the Uchiha'd changed quite a lot throughout these years.

After walking down the wide road for a few minutes he suddenly stopped, turning his head to the left.

"Huh... I didn't think you'd come."

Leaning on a tree, Naruto peered at him thoughtfully for a while without saying anything, so Sasuke started to wonder if his friend was going to try to convince him to stay, just like he tried it last night during their brief speech on the roof of the Hokage residence.

"Here... I'm returning this," the blond finally said, handing him something shiny.

Sasuke took his old, scratched forehead protector, carefully hiding it in the pocket of his pants the next moment.

"I'll keep it... until we really settle things between us."

They stood like that for a few seconds, and then both of them smiled happily, turning away from each other and walking into opposite directions. Neither turned around to see the other's back for the last time.

Moving forward alongside love and hatred, they took their paths with ease, knowing that they would inevitably cross again, sooner or later.

Deep in his thought Sasuke turned to the track that led to the the east. He already knew where he was heading, but the Uchiha wasn't in any hurry.

He had plenty of time, after all.

And then he heard something to his right. Without stopping, he squinted slightly, checking the dark between the trees briefly with his eyes. Someone was obviously following him, and the Uchiha was able to notice it only now, since his head was too overwhelmed at the moment so he wasn't really paying attention to anything around him. There was no one who he could even remotely consider a threat to himself in this world anyway.

However, he didn't like being stalked.

After walking another hundred yards ahead he focused on the sounds nearby, only to hear another twig breaking under someone's feet.

He stopped then, frowning. Who on earth could be stupid enough to follow him anyway? Someone from Konoha? He wasn't too far away yet; in fact, he could still see the upper parts of the huge wall that surrounded the village. But he'd already said his goodbyes to those few who still cared for him in that place.

Who the heck, then...?

"Show yourself. I know you're there. There's no point in hiding now," said the ninja calmly as he eyed the trees carelessly, not bothering to activate his Sharingan.

A few seconds passed before he noticed the slow, cautious motion in the darkness of the forest.

His eyes widened slightly in surprise. He'd expected to see anyone, literally _anyone_ but the person who stepped out of shadows slowly with a very nervous, yet somewhat determined face.

"You...?" was all he was able to mutter, not understanding what the hell this girl was thinking, following him like that.

The weird, white eyed kunoichi with long, silky black hair that reached her waist, dressed in dirty and rumpled baggy clothes, didn't respond to his question. She just stood there, pale and shaking, peering at the ground like as if someone was going to attack her any moment now. Apparently she feared him too much, seeing as she wasn't even able to squeeze out a single sound.

Yes, that was one hell of a surprise, seeing the girl with whom he'd never shared a word throughout his entire life approach him like this... It was clear that she wanted something and that it was very important to her. Someone like her would never have come to face him in the first place otherwise.

But what on earth could she want from _him_ , of all people...?

Collecting his thoughts, he stepped towards her, only to see the Hyūga's eyes shooting up to look at him, the nervous and shy expression of her face turning into an evidently frightened one.

She indeed _feared_ him.

Not that it was surprising to the shinobi. Many people did, especially in Konoha. He didn't really mind it, though; in fact, he preferred them to be this way and to stay away from him instead of being around, molesting and annoying.

But this one was just beyond ridiculous. She'd followed him all the way from the gates of the village, and for what? What could this silly girl possibly hope to get from him?

Eyeing her up and down skeptically, he wasn't able to hold back a quiet sneer.

He finally remembered her from their childhood. She was that weird stalker, his former classmate in the academy and Naruto's only fan girl back then. This Hyūga was also the only kunoichi of his age that had, in fact, never annoyed him. Probably because she'd never actually payed attention to him, which was exactly what he wanted from all the females after long years of being chased and stalked by them.

Her identity explained a lot, but it left as many unanswered questions.

"Your name is Hinata, isn't it?" asked the teen, looking at her with slight despise. Even though she'd never disturbed him directly, he still hated fan girls, whether the object of their admiration was him or not. Of course, after the fateful fight with Naruto and everything that'd happened recently, his paradigm'd shifted pretty significantly. But some of his views and beliefs just couldn't be changed. "What do you want with me?"

The Hyūga pursed her lips nervously, eyeing him cautiously with apparent uncertainty in the white eyes, as if she wasn't sure if she wanted to say something or just run away. After what seemed like a long minute of grave silence he frowned, taking another step closer to her. This time the girl didn't back off − she clenched her fists and took a deep breath, clearly preparing to say something, but he beat her to it.

"Look, if you came to ask me to come back because of the idiot – I won't. Naruto is aware why I'm leaving, and−" Sasuke stopped as the kunoichi shook her head quickly. Confused, he frowned even more. He was beginning to lose his patience with this silly girl. He hadn't even heard her voice yet, but she'd already managed to annoy him. "Then what the hell do you want? Talk already!" said the ninja irritably.

"I−Uchiha-san, I..." she finally started murmuring something, to his relief.

 _At long last, damn it._

"I want to go with you. Please, let me!" she blurted vigorously, meeting the cold glare of his eyes, one of them looking exactly like the ones that haunted her in her nightmares unknown to him − the same eyes which had caused the destruction of her village a year ago, which almost had taken her own life numerous times and which had killed her brother.

But the Uchiha couldn't care less about her feelings, of course. Not that he was even aware of them anyway.

His expression was blank as he was stunned by her ludicrous request. Taking her with him? _Really?_

He barely managed not to laugh. Was the girl completely out of her mind?

The Uchiha eyed her carefully then. This had to be some prank, probably set up by Naruto, there was no other explanation. Only that idiot could have come up with something _this_ stupid.

But she looked dead serious. It was obvious that it took the girl all of her willpower not to look away from him. There had to be something he'd missed; otherwise he was most likely simply hallucinating.

Yes, that had to be it. It wasn't _her_ who'd lost her mind – it was _him_.

Brilliant.

"Why?" he asked bluntly, not willing to confuse himself anymore by reflecting on the matter any further.

Apparently she'd expected this question, because the answer followed almost immediately,

"I−I c-can't stay in−in the v-village−anymore," was all she mumbled, finally giving up the drops of the courage she'd managed to gather and lowering her eyes shamefully again, not able to stand his piercing gaze any longer.

"Oh...?" he drawled thoughtfully, surprised and confused by her answer at the same time. So she was going to become a nukenin, just like he had in the past? Was that what she assumed he was going to do now... again?

And what on earth could have made this spineless girl who'd been adoring his idiot of a friend since their childhood, not really famous for anything else as far as he knew, want to leave Konoha?

Were the pillows in her estate not soft enough or something...?

He suddenly felt the urge to outrage her right away, gritting his teeth in anger.

Who the hell was this little shit thinking she was? And why was he even comparing her to himself when it came to the reasoning for leaving the village anyway?

She was _nothing_ like him. She was just a spoiled little princess who had everything he always secretly dreamed of: her clan, her family, her home...

But then the sudden realization struck him out of the blue.

Something was off with her. One doesn't simply leave everything like this without a very serious reason. Especially if their life is as perfect as hers seemed to be. Sasuke wasn't stupid; he'd actually learned his lessons from the mistakes of his past. From misjudging people, starting with Itachi and finishing with himself... no, not himself.

With the girl that was standing before him right now.

He wouldn't make the same mistake _ever_ again. He was better and smarter than that.

"What happened?" he finally asked after thinking for a while. She winced again, embracing herself as if it were too cold around them.

"It doesn't matter at all, Uchiha-san...," − did she just sniffle? − "...please, just let me follow you. I will−will try to be of use."

He noticed that her white eyes which he'd always found rather creepy and weird, were quickly filling with tears.

He _hated_ it when girls were crying. No matter who they were.

"Yes, it does matter. I don't need you around. If you want to follow, you better give me some good reason to allow it."

She sighed, and so did he. He could clearly see that she wasn't going to tell him much more. Fortunately he had a way to find out everything he wanted with that left eye of his, even though he hadn't quite mastered the ability yet. But there was no other choice anyway.

The Uchiha took his final step to her, and, before Hinata was able to react, he grabbed her wrist.

 _Ningendō!_

The last thing she could see before the memories of the last few days flooded her mind was the dreadful purple eye.

His Rinnegan.


	2. Fate

**Chapter 2. Fate.**

 _Ningendō!_

The time slowed down as the fragments of Hinata's recent memories and thoughts rapidly streamed into his mind through the connection Sasuke'd created with the power of his Rinnegan. It was still far from perfect as he had yet to master the abilities of his left eye to be able to maintain a decent link, so the pictures he was seeing were pretty chaotic and disrupted, making the Uchiha feel disoriented for a second. However, he managed to get the general idea of what'd been happening to the girl throughout the last few days.

So... his idiot of a friend had hurt her feelings. That was pretty surprising to the Uchiha teen, and amusing at the same time. Never could he imagine that Naruto was actually capable of declining someone's offer of further bonding. Somehow, this fact made Sasuke's respect for his brother in all but blood grow up a little bit. At least the Uzumaki wasn't _that_ desperate for admiration from other people anymore.

But there was more to it, of course. If the Hyūga's sole reason to leave the village would have been her broken heart, Sasuke'd personally kick her so hard that she'd fly from the point where they were standing at the moment directly into the window of the Hokage's office.

But, once again surprising, that was the reason of the least significance to the kunoichi.

Apparently, the girl was about to get banished from her clan... well, virtually. Not wanting to be enslaved, especially by her own family, was perfectly understandable to him, although it wasn't something he could relate to. And that part alone was enough to catch the interest of the young shinobi.

For someone to get banished from the Uchiha clan back when it still consisted of more than a single man, the person had to flagrantly violate the law of Konoha at the very least. And even in this case, the clan would rather have stood up for the criminal if they had anything to say about it.

Another possible reason for getting banished was betraying the clan. As a matter of fact, in this case, simple banishment would have been an easy outcome – the usual consequence of betrayal was death penalty, executed by the hands of the traitor's very clansmen.

Judging by the girl's memories, and considering the similarities between the elite clans like theirs, it was fairly evident to Sasuke that she hadn't done either of these things. At least not until she'd run away, and even now it could still hardly be considered breaking the law – after all, she had merely walked out of the gates of the village. And although the Hyūga clan was very different from the Uchiha in many senses... Still, for their head to do something like this to his own daughter...

Was she really _that_ weak and useless?

The Uchiha frowned, recalling his own memories.

This girl was one of those few who'd helped him and Naruto break Obito's Onmyōton shield on the battlefield just a few days ago, he could remember it clearly. Sure, one could say that such a feat was nothing compared to what Team Seven'd done afterwards, but oh well, coming from someone as insignificant as her, it was actually quite something in Sasuke's opinion.

The Uchiha wasn't _that_ arrogant, but he sure had no self esteem issues either. He realized that even prior to him acquiring the Rinnegan, their former classmates'd already been no match for him or Naruto in terms of power. The two of them were just in a completely different league from the rest, and it could be applied to nearly everyone in the Shinobi Alliance, not just to their peers.

But she _had_ been useful and relevant, at least that one time. None of her clansmen'd done more than her to win the war, of that Sasuke was pretty sure. Which meant that there had to be another reason to her exile, and a much deeper one. But what had she done to infuriate the elders of her clan to such extent?

He gave her frightened and pained face a long, studying gaze, still holding her hand tightly and not letting the fragile connection break – the girl most likely didn't realize it, but cutting the link before he stopped using his technique would most certainly kill her, and he couldn't let it happen... at least not without a reason.

The situation was truly awkward and very weird. From what he saw in her memories, the poor thing could hardly harm a fly. Actually, her innocence was almost irritatingly frank... Perhaps the problem was with the clan itself, then?

His eyes widened slightly as he touched another blurry memory of hers, and then he lowered his head slightly, as if nodding to himself.

So, that's how it was. Until recently, she'd been supposed to become the clan's head in the future.

That settled everything.

Sasuke didn't need to know her any better than he already did, even though he was interacting with her for the first time in his life right right now (as far as he could remember), to say that the leadership skills of Hyūga Hinata were nearly on the same level as his own skill of ballet dancing. Apparently her father, Hyūga Hiashi, had finally realized it not so long ago, and so the man'd decided to make her younger sister the heir instead of her, and it seemed that this decision'd brought up the necessity to put Hinata into the Branch House of their clan.

Basically, the current head of the Hyūga had decided to get rid of his own older daughter by putting that atrocious cursed seal on her head and leaving the girl to live a miserable life of endless shame within the village, useless and unwanted by everyone, even by Naruto. That explained why she was trying to run away from her home.

No wonder. Who could possibly want to accept a destiny like this one?

The realization bothered Sasuke, almost making him come dangerously close to the line of second guessing his decision to spare Konoha from the destruction he'd originally intended to bring upon the place.

 _How can they still allow something like this to exist in the village?_ _Where the hell were the previous Hokage watching...? To overlook this shit happening right under their noses...!_ he thought angrily, gripping the girl's arm even more tightly as he felt the familiar hatred filling every fiber of his being. It felt almost like meeting a good old friend he thought he wouldn't get to see anytime soon.

A frighteningly pleasant feeling he didn't want to feel anymore...

The Uchiha clan had its long history with Senju, and by now Sasuke'd already understood that what'd happened to his clan was probably inevitable. Just like any truce, theirs couldn't possibly have lasted forever. Besides, the clan'd been corrupted through the stone tablet hidden in the Naka Shrine for many centuries, so it was... still unfair, since they all had fallen victim to Black Zetsu's twisted plan, but it was at least possible for the young ninja to accept such reasoning and to move on. Especially since Sasuke'd already ultimately avenged his clan by sealing both Black Zetsu and Kaguya for good, so he held no grudge against Konoha or Senju anymore.

And up to this moment, he'd had no doubt that their case was unique for the Hidden Leaf Village. He was naive enough to believe that aside from that artificial conflict between the two major clans, everything else was relatively fine.

But now he could see how wrong and silly he'd been all along by thinking so. It turned out that perhaps even more corrupted and ugly things still existed within Konohagakure. And one of them was the filthy clan of this pitiful girl who was now ready to beg him to allow her to go with him, only only not to come back to _them_.

To think that they'd driven her to _craving_ to join someone she was so afraid of, only to be able to run as far away from them as possible... and for him to teach her to survive as a nukenin...

He clenched his jaw angrily.

If any clan ever had truly deserved to be wiped out of the face of their world, that was certainly the Hyūga brethren.

Sasuke frowned again as he touched another memory of the girl that came out next.

Neji... _her brother, huh_. He could remember the guy, although the Uchiha hadn't seen him ever since he'd left the village for the first time nearly four years ago. He also hadn't personally witnessed Neji's death as he'd joined the battle after it had already happened. But he could relate to this pain of hers for once... and that's to say the least.

An adept fighter, back during their childhood called him a genius who could rival Sasuke himself. If he were an Uchiha or Senju, Neji would probably have been able to give the raven haired ninja a good challenge should they have clashed. He'd also been one of those whom this filthy excuse of a clan always used to protect their leaders' pitiful lives, and, of course, as a Branch House member, Neji'd been carrying the very same seal they intended to put on his sister now. Apparently the connection between this girl and her brother was pretty strong – from what Sasuke could see in her mind, the deceased shinobi was one of the very few people she'd managed to create a real bond with throughout her life.

Well, at least there was some common ground between her and him. Considering that she didn't find her team being a reason good enough for her to stay in the village, the relationship between them was most likely not as great as it could seem at the first approach. At least she hardly considered them her friends now, which was a positive thing in the Uchiha's opinion, and also another detail they shared in common. He didn't think that there was any real way for her to return now, and if she'd have had any real friends in Konoha, they would most likely be the anchors to hold her there, or, in other words, an obstacle.

The fewer ties remained binding Hinata to her home, the better it was for both of them. After all, it only made his business easier by far. She had no reason to ever come back anyway. At least that was what she believed now – he could see it in her mind aside from many other things, including some disturbing ones which made him sigh tiredly.

Even though there was no romantic interest, she'd been stalking him throughout the last few days, too.

He hated stalkers...

Only a few seconds passed in the real world since the moment when he'd grabbed her slender hand and used the technique on the kunoichi, but apparently the Hyūga couldn't endure her mind being ravaged any longer. With surprisingly great strength, she broke her wrist out of his grasp, and only by some miracle he managed to react just in time to stop using the Human Path on her before she'd get herself killed.

Hinata fell back, clumsily landing on her butt and raising a small cloud of dust up from the gravel road.

"W-What... What d-did you d-do to me?" she squeaked, coughing and trying to catch her breath.

He gave her an estimating gaze, ignoring the question. Did it really matter to her now? Probably not _._

He decided that he wasn't going to leave the girl in the lurch, after all. Not after he'd acquired all those memories of hers. She was in desperate need of help, and right now he was literally the only person in the entire world who could possibly give her what was necessary for her get out of this ordeal.

On top of that, it would be a good start for redeeming himself, wouldn't it? A win-win situation, most definitely.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Hinata, still looking at her incredulous face thoughtfully. This girl didn't need any comfort, kindness or relief. What she truly lacked awfully was education and hardening. And training, too.

These things, the Uchiha was capable of granting her far better than anyone else.

Of course, he could already see a ton of problems which were going to follow his decision without a doubt. But he was sure he could deal with them. It was a part of the path he'd chosen, after all.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Meanwhile, she was watching his every move carefully, having no idea what was going on in the man's head. It seemed to her as if an eternity'd passed before he finally opened his mouth and said:

"Alright. You may follow me. However, there will be conditions. Get up."

He didn't offer her his hand, and judging by the slightly perplexed look she gave him, waiting a few seconds before raising up from the ground, she expected him to do that – probably because throughout her life there was always someone either from that branch of slaves of her clan or from her team to help her. To protect her. To do the job for her whatever her tasks were. In other words, to babysit her always and everywhere.

The shinobi scowled, glaring at her. And what had they expected her to become, growing up and living in such conditions...?

First of all, he needed to make it clear to his new burden – nobody was going to nurse her anymore. From now on, she was on her own, and she had to learn to deal with it. Otherwise she was dead. He didn't have to be truthful with her, so he wasn't going to let Hinata understand what he was really going to do to her. At least not anytime soon.

Not until she would _ask_ him to do exactly that... which, he had no doubt, she would do very soon.

The Hyūga wiped the dust off her sleeves, afraid to even glance at her supposed 'savior'. Her legs were slightly shaking – probably the side effect of her mind being suddenly infiltrated by him in not exactly the most polite and pleasant manner.

"W-What are t-the conditions, Uchiha-san?" she asked, stuttering annoyingly as she raised her head sheepishly to look at him with uncovered caution in her tear-stained white eyes, unsure what to expect of the former nukenin who narrowed his eyes back at her.

"First of all, don't bother trying to hide anything from me. I know why you'd left Konoha, I've seen it all," her eyes widened while his own expression remained impassive as he added, explaining patiently, "This is one of my Rinnegan's abilities. By touching your body, I can read your memories and thoughts." Her fists clenched resentfully at his casual tone, and the black haired teen could see the uprising anger somewhere very deep in her eyes, which nearly made him chuckle.

Well then, at least she _did_ have it in her. It was good... for starters.

But he never showed that he'd noticed her hidden emotions at all, going on mercilessly,

"You're just a useless weakling who couldn't figure out where to go. I don't blame you, though; your pathetic excuse of a clan shouldn't even exist in this world to begin with, so the intention to run away from them is only natural for any sane person. That, however, doesn't mean that I need or want someone like you around to annoy me." He watched her reaction to his words carefully, expecting some kind of an outburst on her part.

But she lowered her eyes again instead, biting her lip. The girl seemed like she was being torn between anger and self pity now.

The former was promising, the latter... not great at all.

"You're going to be on your own. Your business is yours, mine is mine. You don't pry into my dealings, and I couldn't care less about what you do so long as it doesn't put my own plans at risk."

She appeared to be perfectly fine with this, or at least Hinata was smart enough not to show any sign of displeasure which would be satisfying as well. Nevertheless, the Uchiha found it quite interesting as well as possibly promising – such pliability wasn't typical for someone from Konoha. Most of them always poked their noses everywhere they could. The quality which he especially loathed.

Giving her a few seconds to think over his words, he continued,

"You must realize that from now on, you're either dead or wanted." Her eyes widened even more – she obviously didn't grasp what he was implying.

He sighed impatiently. This girl was way too naive for her own good.

"What do you think your clan is going to do once they find out that you're missing? Either you have been abducted, and in this case you must be eliminated for the sake of protecting the secrets of your eyes at all costs, or you've run away on your own. In any case, if someone recognizes you and spreads the news, you'll be labeled a nukenin without a doubt. This will most likely happen later anyway, even if you choose not to follow me and decide to hide somewhere until you die pitifully like a rat in a gutter."

She nodded slowly – clearly the last one wasn't the option for the Hyūga, to Sasuke's satisfaction.

"Which means that you're not allowed to get recognized anytime soon no matter what. We'll be seeing many various people at different places, and none of them must find out who you are. Otherwise _I_ would get in trouble. As a shinobi of Konoha, I don't want to be associated with a nukenin. I've had more than ample of this stuff before and I feel too old for playing hide and seek again."

Now she appeared to be shocked. Clearly the girl'd never assumed that he was capable of joking. What did she think he was anyway, some mindless killing machine or a soulless monster?

He fought the urge to smirk grimly. Probably something among these lines _._

Still, the Hyūga nodded stoically. At least she understood his point, it seemed.

"This will only serve you right, though," he added after a few seconds of thinking and eyeing her worn, baggy clothes critically. "Your outfit isn't suitable for a kunoichi, and it's no good for a traveler either. You need to change as soon as possible."

He didn't want to admit it, but this was actually quite amusing. Now she looked both embarrassed and slightly offended at the same time. Hadn't anyone told her that about her choice of equipment before? Apparently nobody of her fellows really cared for her enough to point out such an obvious thing. Because this was almost as bad as Naruto's orange abomination which his friend called a ninja outfit.

Ridiculous. At least the Uzumaki could afford wearing whatever he wanted, being one of the strongest shinobi to ever live.

"I–I'll buy s-something with the first op-portunity I get...," she mumbled timidly in a few seconds, looking down at her jacket thoughtfully and nervously running her fingers through the soft fabric, frowning.

Finally, she was getting it.

"I assume that you have enough money for that, then," said the Uchiha, already knowing for a fact that she didn't have any mother whatsoever.

Her cheeks reddened rapidly as she gasped,

"N-no... I–!"

"Then you will have to steal some. I'm not giving you anything." Having said that, he turned away from his new-found companion and walked ahead. The sound of fast yet light steps reached his ears shortly, making him let out the lightest smirk.

This was going to be a really long trip.

* * *

Was she any surprised? Probably not. The Uchiha turned out to be exactly what she'd expected him to be. A cold, selfish and unreadable person with many disturbing and frightening mysteries surrounding him. She didn't know and neither could she possibly imagine what his true intentions were, but if Naruto and the Hokage'd let him go, then it was probably not about causing any harm to Konoha.

Her village...

In spite of her inner struggle, she couldn't just give up on that place and all those people she'd spent her entire life with. She still cared about them deeply, and it wasn't going anywhere. Unlike the Uchiha (or at least what she thought he was), Hyūga Hinata was a very selfless and kind girl. She didn't believe it was entirely true, though, but that's what most people thought and said about her as far as she heard anyway.

Of course, should her father come to her right now, asking his daughter to forgive him and promising that she would never have to receive the seal... that alone would be more than enough for her to gladly agree to return no matter how miserable and lonely her life would be afterwards. Perhaps she could bear with all the rest, but the sealing ritual... it was just beyond the extent of her humility.

But father never came, naturally. Moreover, she doubted that he'd even care enough to start searching her earlier than at least in a few weeks since the moment of her disappearance. And even then his only concern would be her Byakugan anyway. In other words, it was irrelevant to him if they would take her back dead or alive. Sasuke was spot on here. From their point of view, her eyes needed to be destroyed before someone outside of the Hyūga clan would get an opportunity to lay a hand on them. That's what the seal'd originally been designed for in the first place, after all. And activation of the seal would mean her imminent death.

Hinata feared a death like this. It would bee too pitiful, and her pride, despite being buried very deep inside of her, wasn't completely gone yet.

They'd been walking the path to the east for an hour or so by now, hardly meeting anyone on their way. The Uchiha was a few yards ahead of her all the time, never bothering to check her condition or to talk to her, seemingly deep in his own thought and completely careless.

Considering what he'd said about her outfit, she wanted to get changed as soon as possible, afraid to get noticed and recognized. Fortunately enough, they'd met only two civilians on their way – probably some merchants walking towards Konoha, but these people didn't pay much attention to them and that was mutual. She'd only received a compassionate look from the youngest one, which'd made her feel a bit confused for a while. But then she'd realized that from a stranger's point of view, she and Sasuke probably looked like some quarreling couple, with the Uchiha completely ignoring her as he was walking ahead quickly without any sign of emotion on his face, and with her trailing him like a beaten puppy, barely keeping up, with a pained and worried expression. The traces of tears on her face were probably a perfect masterstroke to the picture.

It was the first time that day when Hinata giggled quietly. Just thinking about them being in this kind of relationship was beyond ridiculous, for Sasuke was probably the last man in this world she could ever imagine herself dating. It'd have been so out of character for him to be with someone like her, and he certainly wasn't the type she worshiped anyway, most certainly not. Being so harsh, cruel and rude, sometimes even seeming insane... Actually, now that she thought about it, he reminded her of her father quite a lot. In fact, the only thing that made some real difference between him and Hyūga Hiashi in general was the fact that Uchiha Sasuke had a legitimate reason to consider everyone around him dirt, just like he did when it came to her, apparently.

He was _strong_. She didn't know the precise extent of his capabilities, but what she knew for sure was that he was at least as strong as Naruto, and also that together they'd stopped the immortal Uchiha Madara who, at the time, had obtained the power of gods. Furthermore, Naruto'd told everyone that this young Uchiha was the one thanks to whom they'd all been saved from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, which made Hinata wonder how powerful Sasuke truly was.

Walking now ahead of her, seeming so peaceful and calm, he looked neither threatening nor dangerous at all, if only not for his left eye. But the sole fact that he'd managed to get inside her mind and see her strongest memories as if it was a walk in a park for him, and to do this by simply touching her... without any effort at all... It made her think that at this point, there was probably nobody who could stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do, and this realization was a bit scary to the girl.

Contrary to him, Hiashi was mostly all talk. Of course, he was a fine shinobi and a capable leader, but he wasn't really any better than most of adult jōnin of Konoha. He was good, but he was surely no match for someone like Maito Gai or Hatake Kakashi, their new Hokage.

And certainly not for Uchiha Sasuke, for all she knew.

Which was why, in Hinata's opinion, her father had absolutely no right or reason to treat people around him the way he did, as if all of them were irrelevant filth. He was arrogant, cruel, selfish, and many other pretentious things, but what made it so totally wrong in her eyes was the simple fact – he wasn't even remotely as strong as he tried to look. After all, what had he contributed to stop Pain when he'd destroyed the village?

Nothing.

Hiashi and their entire clan weren't even able to lay a finger on the leader of Akatsuki while Naruto, a mere teen of her own age, had saved them all, defeating the Rinnegan wielder single-handedly in the end. Not to mention that Naruto'd managed to do it back when he'd been much weaker than he was nowadays.

And that was the Uzumaki boy. Not the glorious Hyūga clan that was said to be the strongest in Konoha.

During the latest war, her clan hadn't helped much to bring Madara and Obito down either. They'd been protecting the Shinobi Alliance, of course, but was that really what one could expect from arguably the strongest clan of shinobi world? And hadn't it turned to be futile at the end of the day anyway...?

Regardless of that, it was clear to Hinata that both Naruto and Sasuke were far out of their league nowadays. They'd already been long before, too, so Sasuke had every reason to badmouth her clan all he wanted, simply because there was nobody to take this right from him, and that was how their world worked. Power always was the deciding thing.

He could question their power and their traditions, too. He knew it all, and it was obvious that since he despised the name of Hyūga. What she would secretly like to know, however, was if he had formed such opinion based on her memories he'd received from her, or rather on what he'd already known prior to that?

But there was another good thing about Sasuke being so powerful. It also meant that she was protected while he was around, which was a good thing considering the circumstances. Although...

Would he even bother defending her should something nasty happen on their way? He sure didn't care about her one bit, and it would be more than expected of someone like him to leave her alone to die, of this she had no doubt. But trying to predict the possible outcome of such situation would be pointless as well as asking him. Formerly a traitor, the Uchiha wasn't an honest person for sure. At least she didn't trust him at all.

Then why had he decided to let her follow him? There had to be a deeper reason to it, and she couldn't help but wonder about it. He probably saw some benefits in her presence, but what exactly could they possibly be...?

All these bothersome thoughts weren't the only things that occupied her troubled mind while they were walking through the deep forest in grave silence.

He'd said she must steal something. Some clothes or money to buy them. And Hinata had never stolen anything in her life. Would it be a big deal now that she had no home, no friends or family to return to? There was probably nobody who cared of her good name at this point...

She winced, feeling her eyes filling with treacherous tears once again and trying to wipe them with the back of her hand as soon as possible, just so that the Uchiha wouldn't notice.

Yes, it would be a big deal. _She_ herself still cared. But the more Hinata was thinking about it, the clearer she realized that it didn't ultimately matter. If she was to go with Sasuke, then she had to obey his demands and orders. Besides, he was right, after all – she needed to conceal her real identity, it was _a must_.

She eyed his back for the first time in what seemed like an hour of monotonous walking – truth to be told, she'd lost the track of time hours prior to leaving Konoha.

The Uchiha's outfit was very simple, but it appeared to be quite suitable at the same time. From what she'd noticed as she'd studied him furtively during their conversation before, he was wearing a simple black long sleeved tunic under the dark high collared cloak that reached slightly below his knees; standard black pants that were a part of the uniform of nearly every ninja in Konoha nowadays, including Hinata herself; his shins were wrapped with white bandages that reached his ankles; a pair of cheap sandals, once again reminding Hinata of the standard Konoha's ninja uniform of the previous generation; a leather belt with a few additional pockets attached to it, and, finally, the sword that was now barely visible behind his back and looked more like a walking stick rather than a weapon. Someone who didn't know who he was would probably not even realize that the man was a shinobi, because unlike it was with his past outfits, she couldn't see the Uchiha Clan's crest on his back now.

The only thing that could give him away was his Rinnegan that surely looked creepy to civilians and dreadful to any foreign shinobi who were familiar with it. But most of them didn't even know what exactly this dōjutsu was anyway and neither had they ever heard about it at all.

She, on the contrary, was very easy to recognize, with her main problem being, of course, her famous and very notable dōjutsu – the Byakugan.

Hinata bit her lower lip, thinking feverishly. She had to do something about her eyes before she'd get to face other people again, no matter where the two of them were heading to. There could always happen to be some ninja, and they might start asking questions.

The sudden idea struck her like a thunder in the middle of a clear day.

 _Of course...!_ Her eyes were, in fact, the easiest thing to hide considering the way her dōjutsu worked. She could see through things. She could hide her eyes with literally anything, simply keeping the Byakugan activated at all times!

Hinata unzipped her jacket quickly, palpating the lower part of her black t–shirt before smiling happily.

Yes, that would be more than enough.

Taking a kunai out of the holster on her leg, she ripped a long patch of cloth off her waist with a loud crackling sound, shortening the t–shirt by a few inches and thus making some part of the pale skin of her flat stomach visible, with her jacked being unzipped like this.

But she didn't care about it at the moment.

The Hyūga took the patch and, folding it in half, wrapped it around her head, covering her eyes completely with the the improvised bandage. This way, she would probably seem blind to a stranger, and nobody would think she could actually see through the thing. This was a perfect cover for her, as well as an advantage in a possible fight.

Too excited by her little invention, Hinata never noticed how Sasuke turned his head slightly, glancing over his shoulder with his onyx black eye to check what she was doing and giving her a small approving snort before turning away again, resuming to pretending not to notice his follower.

* * *

Several hours later, dusk slowly descended upon the forest through which they'd been walking throughout the entire day. Sasuke deliberately didn't try to make it any faster; originally, he'd intended to take things as slow as possible with his journey, mostly in order to embrace the atmosphere of the new world he was supposed to help building up. And that would be impossible if he traveled even at the speed of an average shinobi, not to mention using his own unique abilities.

Besides, now that Hinata'd tagged along, it was more like a necessity to slow down, but he didn't mind it – it was better for both of them to ensure that as less people knew that she was a kunoichi as possible.

She'd done a good job hiding her dōjutsu, he could acknowledge that much; with that bandage of hers, the Hyūga really looked like some blind, defenseless civilian girl, considering her fragile and feminine appearance as well as her overly timid demeanor. Not that it was a big deal from his point of view, and it certainly wasn't a reason to compliment her in any way – hiding such conspicuous dōjutsu as Byakugan was supposed to be the first thing that came to one's mind naturally if a person needed to be stealthy. Now, the only thing that left him wondering was if she would figure it out on her own that the forehead protector that still was still resting on her neck was also nearly screaming about her origins to others in these lands, and, especially so, to the local ninjas. This obvious flaw diminished the meaning of her previous achievement completely in his eyes, leaving his attitude completely unchanged in the end.

Sasuke was a bit curious what was she going to do next, and he didn't want to give her any hint or advise just yet. He needed to see what the girl was capable of on her own in her current state before he would start teaching her to be a proper kunoichi.

Hinata mostly kept silent as they walked, obviously too sunken in her sullen thoughts – after all, considering the situation she ended up in, the girl had quite a few things to reflect on, which was understandable. Still, she looked much less conflicted now than she'd been back when they'd met in the morning – apparently she'd come to accept the simple fact that she had no way to get back anymore, and that was another huge step in the right direction.

The sooner she got rid of any delusions regarding how things really were for her from now on, the better.

In order for Sasuke to be able to educate her properly, she also needed to get rid of any regrets and doubts. And, of course, he wouldn't do so much as moving a finger to help her with that – clearly, the girl already considered him to be some sort of a villain, so forcing her to follow his will in any way would only strengthen her inner resistance and denial.

She must ask him to help her, and to do it willingly. By helping, he implied becoming her mentor, not just a companion in this journey, even though the leading one.

She needed to realize her flaws and their causes; to understand how wrong her way of living had been up to this moment.

And she wouldn't be able to get it all without trying; without making even more mistakes, just like he'd made his in the past. He would never have been able to finally see the light if someone'd simply told him what to do in the very beginning.

There were no shortcuts. He knew it probably better than anyone else.

Glancing up at the inky sky, he suddenly turned to the left from the path they were walking, striding deeper into the forest where it was already completely dark thanks to the bushy crowns of the huge trees. After making a few steps forward he finally stopped, taking his cloak off and throwing it offhandedly onto the grass under their feet.

"We'll be staying here for the night. Tomorrow, approximately by this time, we shall reach our first destination," said the shinobi without looking at Hinata, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket. He dropped it then, forming a hand sign after giving it a short glance. A simple, nearly ascetic tent that could barely accommodate them both simultaneously appeared next to the teen out of a cloud of thick, white smoke.

It was the first time in a few hours when he said something to Hinata, so the girl looked a bit confused, unsure what to say now, or if she was even supposed to reply.

"W-What's our destination th-then, Uchiha-san?" she muttered quietly after a short pause, expecting either some kind of a rough response or just nothing at all, not really hoping for her question to ever be answered.

But apparently she was wrong. After a few seconds of looking around thoughtfully, he said:

"We're going to the Land of Waves."

* * *

 _Nami no Kuni_? But what could he possibly want with that peaceful region? As far as Hinata could remember, there was no Hidden Village there, and no mission of the rank higher than C had been assigned to that country in the last few years. In other words, it was very hard to imagine what interest could Sasuke possibly have in that place unless he wanted to take a vacation and spend it there.

The ridiculous thought made her smile. She totally couldn't imagine someone like him just sitting there, wasting his time on basking in the sun on a beach and doing nothing useful for a few days.

She flinched then, gazing at him apprehensively. After setting up the tent and a few strings with traps around their small camp which were meant to alert them in case if someone approached them at night, Sasuke started walking around, gathering wood, being just as quiet and impassive as before.

Feeling the burning desire to hide her rapidly reddening face, the Hyūga girl turned around and walked to the opposite side of the camp, trying to suppress the embarrassment and blaming herself for being so careless and useless once again. It was obvious that he wanted to make a campfire, and she just stood there, doing nothing but staring like an idiot...

She needed to get some food for them, then. Yes, that would do well.

Fortunately the Byakugan helped her see through the darkness of the night forest perfectly; only a few minutes passed, and she'd already filled her pockets and hands with various berries and mushrooms she had picked from all around the place.

As Hinata returned to the now brightly burning bonfire in about twenty minutes, she smiled in satisfaction, wiping the drops of sweat off her forehead which made her forelock slid to the side, looking slovenly now, but she didn't notice it. The warming spurts of flame were dancing beautifully just few yards away from the tent, suddenly making everything a lot less frightening and disturbing for the girl this night.

The black haired shinobi was sitting there on his cloak in the lotus posture, flaying a rabbit with surprising dexterity which demonstrated clearly that it wasn't the first time when he cooked such... dish.  
She was by no means a vegetarian, but for some reason the unemotional expression the man had while he was preparing his meal made Hinata feel a bit uneasy. But the girl pushed the feeling away and, of course, she didn't comment his actions, coming closer to him instead.

"Uh–Uchiha-san...," he didn't react, so she continued hesitantly after a short pause, "I brought these, so... if you want s-some..." She took her jacket off, putting all the food she had gathered earlier on its clean inner side.

He still didn't react at all.

The kunoichi sighed, sitting down near the fire and hugging her knees, sinking into her thought again.

But he didn't let her do it this time.

"These are pretty good," she heard him say quietly, which made the girl turn her head to the man the same instant, not believing her own ears. He was still finishing the rabbit off, but at the same time, Sasuke was clearly chewing something.

Her eyes widened.

No, she wasn't wrong – he took another berry from the pile, putting it into his mouth. "Are you sure they are not poisonous?" he asked casually, as if he didn't really care if they were or not. She didn't know that he was immune to most kinds of poison thanks to the time he'd spent with Orochimaru.

"Y-yes!" she squeaked, quickly nodding her head and taking a deep breath of fresh, warm air of the autumn forest.

During their times as a team of genin, Kurenai–sensei had taught her how to gather food in the forests that surrounded Konoha, assuming that they would be doing many missions in this area in the future.

"Fine." Silence fell upon their camp again, lasting for a few minutes before he finally started to put the small pieces of meat onto the straight twigs which he'd picked up before, apparently. There turned to be three more portions aside from the one he was currently starting to roast, but he never offered her one.

Not like this was somehow surprising to Hinata – he'd made things pretty clear between the two of them, after all. Both were on their owns.

Yet still...

She frowned, biting her lip. Did he have any sense of politeness what so ever? She had offered him some food, hadn't she? Just how selfish could this man be...?

Not to mention that the wonderful flavor in the air made her stomach rumble enviously and loudly...

* * *

He looked at her with a corner of his eye, wondering what she was going to do. Definitely, Hinata didn't like the fact that he took the berries she'd brought, yet never offered her the meat in exchange. It was all according to his plan – even though she could never possibly figure it out due to her simple-minded nature, he was actually examining the girl and, well, he was already training her... in a way.

She needed to learn that whenever she wanted something, she had to go and grab it and not just wait for someone to hand everything to her on a silver plate.

The kunoichi hesitated. And if this word could even be applied to this girl, she seemed to be slightly mad at him.

He smiled with the corners of his mouth.

 _Piece of cake._

Now all that remained to do was to play with her a little bit.

"Um-m...," he moaned in pleasure as he took another bite of meat, closing his eyes in joy. He was chewing slowly, feeling a thin trickle of bloody juice flowing down his chin. This was truly delicious, so Sasuke didn't even have to feign anything.

 _Come on, girl. You can do this. Don't let my expectations down.  
_

* * *

"Uchiha-san... can I take one of these?" she asked at last, pointing at the twigs and looking at him expectantly with a small glimpse of fear in her eyes.

"Can you?" came the almost immediate response that seemed to confuse her.

Hinata hesitated again, unsure what to do. Had he just challenged her to dare? Or was this rather meaning that it was a silly question on her part, and, of course, she could take it?

She frowned. Had she really just noticed his lips curve for a split second, or was it just an optical illusion caused by the fire dancing between the two teens...?

The girl fidgeted, peering at him searchingly. What was she going to lose if she tried anyway? She'd already lost everything, she was hungry, and technically they were accomplices now, weren't they?

Well, probably not exactly.

Yet still Hinata raised her hand slowly, reaching out to take the twig with meat from his side, carefully watching his reaction and ready to drop it the moment he moved.

His eyes followed the scared Hyūga lazily with what seemed to her like barely notable curiosity as he took another bite from his piece, not moving an inch from his spot.

Not letting her own eyes off his face, she sat back to her previous spot and waited for a few seconds, staring at the Uchiha in a mixture of disbelief and childish triumph.

He still didn't move. Not counting chewing, of course.

She let out a slow, quiet sigh of relief, grabbing a few mushrooms from the pile and putting them on her twig alongside the meat. It turned out that he didn't care what she was doing, after all. She could allow herself some freedom with him. And also...

Her eyes widened slightly at the man again, but fortunately he didn't notice it as he was staring at the fire distantly, appearing to be spacing out.

He didn't mind her taking his food. Did it actually mean that they _were_ accomplices, after all? That he considered her a part of his team now, at least to an extent? That at least the smallest bond had been forged between the two of them...?

The girl smiled softly, finally moving her eyes off Sasuke and raising her head to look up at the sky. It was already completely dark, with thousands of stars glowing cheerfully across the infinite space that seemed to be so close yet was so far away from them, with the thin rays of bewitching silver light breaking through the crowns of the trees from the moon that was slightly visible on the horizon.

All of sudden, she felt a lot better than... Hinata couldn't really remember when.

Perhaps better than ever before? Would such a claim be too bold...?

Lost in her thoughts and sensations, Hinata didn't notice how Sasuke finished his meal, throwing the now empty twigs away.

"I'm going to sleep," was all he said before getting up and walking toward the tent. She followed him with her gaze perplexedly, as if she didn't quite get what he'd just told her.

Because she was feeling so nice at the moment...! She felt so warm and peaceful, so completely free from everything that had been bothering fer until now... These nearly intoxicating thoughts overwhelmed the girl, suddenly making her feel a bit dizzy, as if she were drunk.

* * *

Sasuke, on the other hand, despite not showing any signs of what was on his mind, was feeling victorious and, surprisingly enough to himself, excited. Turning away from the bonfire and his unexpected companion, he smirked, lying down.

Little by little, step by step... something interesting could be made out of her.

Everything had gone accordingly up to this moment, after all. Just as he had expected after watching her memories, the girl wasn't necessarily a lost cause. She was similar to a pet that had been abused by its owners for many years, too afraid of accidentally making people around her angry by unknowingly doing something they wouldn't approve of, not knowing what reaction to expect from them and when would they strike, causing her pain again and again.

That was clearly the reason why she always felt so insecure and why she was so clumsy, unable to coordinate her body with her conscious properly. It was all thanks to her clan, or rather those Hyūga seniors who'd been treating her like shit throughout the girl's entire life, confusing education with cruelty, training with abusing, teaching with breaking her fragile mind.

The Uchiha frowned at the sudden realization. Even though her clan was a big piece of trash, it couldn't possibly be that simple.

 _I should never judge anyone or anything at first sight ever again_ , he reminded himself.

There could be and probably was something more to her case. He doubted that, as a child, she had been treated all that much different than the way other Hyūga children typically were. Sure, she was the heir and all, but... something there seemed very off, and Sasuke couldn't figure out what exactly it was. Perhaps, for some reason, she was special to her father, and not in a good way? But then again, what made her so special...?

The teen decided that he definitely should venture into this matter later, when she would open up to him enough to tell him about her childhood and her clan.

However, until that moment, there was a really long way to pass for both of them. He must to help her, and he was going to do it, it'd been decided.

Everything'd been going just fine so far, after all.

He finally closed his eyes at the reassuring thought, slowly sinking into the embrace of the dreamworld, somehow being sure that there would be no nightmares to bother him this night.

* * *

At the same time, Hinata was still sitting near the campfire when she finally began to feel the effects of the long and hard stress, starting with the war and finishing with their long walk today, finally hitting her.

Now that she had calmed down all in all, the girl was feeling sleepy, tired, and she could barely move her numb limbs.

Slowly getting up, she gazed occasionally at her jacked on which rested the berries and mushrooms she'd gathered. The Hyūga kunoichi smiled joyfully – Sasuke had eaten almost all of them, leaving roughly a third part for her. But she was already pretty much sated anyway.

Walking closer to the tent where the man was resting, she tried to not make any noises since the Uchiha was supposed to be long asleep by now and she didn't want to wake him up occasionally. Looking at his unusually relaxed face, she suddenly flinched, covering her mouth with her palm.

There was barely any space for the _two_ of them.

She felt like beginning to cry again. He was really cruel after all, this Uchiha Sasuke. Even though she didn't mind him using her goods, he, on the other hand, obviously wasn't going to make her life easier in any possible way.

But, come to thing about it, that was kind of fair, so she couldn't really complain. Hadn't he told her just that prior to agreeing to let her join him?

Feeling extremely uncomfortable, Hinata stood there, unsure what to do. Was she supposed to sleep outside? That didn't sound like a good idea to her. What if rain started during the night? But then again, could she dare get inside and try to settle in there next to the ninja?

Surely she wasn't fat or big at all – in fact, she was rather petite, especially compared to the rather tall Uchiha who was now sleeping carelessly right in front of her. She should be able to fit in, without a doubt... barely, but still able.

But would it be appropriate? For her to do something like this... and to him, of all people...

Hinata blushed at the rush of disturbing thoughts in her head. What if he tried to do... something... while she was asleep? She'd never shared a bed with a man before, but she'd heard quite a few things about it from the other girls in Konoha.

Pretty indecent things...

Remembering their tales made the Hyūga girl blush even more as her legs were slowly beginning to shake both out of exhaustion and nervousness.

The kunoichi clenched her fists vigorously then, taking a deep breath and crawling straight under the tent. She lay down and turned to face the side of the tent opposite to the ninja, so their backs were slightly touching each other.

She decided that even if he wanted to do something to her, he could have done it before, yet he hadn't. And it wasn't like she would be able to stop him anyway – he was way too strong for her to even think about resisting.

 _But he wouldn't try anything, of course,_ she tried to calm herself down. The man was clearly not interested in her in this way... and neither in _any_ way, for that matter.

Actually, no boy had ever shown any interest in Hinata, or at least she'd never noticed anyone paying attention to her. Well, who could possibly be interested in someone like her? She was just, well... Hyūga Hinata. Any other girl was much better than her by default. She had been living with this fact just fine while she still had that dream of hers... that Naruto would one day definitely notice her. Believing that he was the one for her and vice versa... It had always helped her to get over the fact that nobody'd ever looked at her in _that_ way, always choosing the beautiful and strong girls like her former classmates, Sakura and Ino.

But now she was finally beginning to realize how futile it'd been all along to dream childishly of something ridiculous like that.

Nobody would ever love her. She'd always been just a useless and spineless stuttering girl with no confidence whatsoever. Always so weak, pathetic and laughable...

For the first time in her life Hinata felt truly disgusted by herself as well as angered.

Just how could she have been so blind...? Oh, the irony. Her eyesight was better than that of most people in the world, yet still, she'd been unable to see something so simple and obvious...

It was the moment when Hinata's eyes widened under the bandage at another another shocking realization that came upon her this day.

Simply running away from the village would never truly change her life for the better. She would just end up being all the same anywhere else. Even now, with the mysterious Uchiha, it was obvious that he could barely tolerate her presence, probably allowing her to follow him purely out of pity or some dirty plans he had for her, although she preferred not to think of such possibility.

Hinata needed to change, and desperately so. She had to become different. Better. Much better, in fact, because just being better than _nothing_ wouldn't give her much.

Until this moment, she'd always been genuinely believing that becoming better meant blindly taking on Naruto's motto to never give up, to be kind, to stand up for her friends even though they laughed at her, never taking her serious as if she was just a funny toy for them to play with before leaving her alone over and over again.

That way didn't work for her. It could never have worked to begin with, she could see it clearly now.

Then what could, actually? What did she have to do in order to become a different person? To stop being so disgusting and weak...? Who could possibly answer this question? _  
_

She bit her lip again, nearly cursing aloud for the first time in her life, slightly turning her head to glance at the Uchiha.

 _Of course._

Who else could it be if not him...? This man to whom every trace of her thought led the girl again and again. The one whose quiet, calming sniffing she was now listening to.

 _Uchiha Sasuke._

He had changed many times throughout his life, from that gentle and cheerful little boy she could still remember from when they were kids to the excellent genin of Konoha he'd become later on, and then to the bloody avenger who had managed to single-handedly kill the legendary Uchiha Itachi as well as Deidara of Akatsuki and Orochimaru the Sannin, only to become a member of that same organisation at the age of sixteen, finally ending up being what he currently was.  
The mysterious shinobi that walked his own unique way, completely independent, one of the most powerful people in their world.

Had he ever wavered? Yes, probably. After all, he'd run away from the village once before... just like she'd done today.

But had he been _broken_?

 _Hell, no._ Not now, not prior to the war, not even in his childhood after the infamous massacre.

 _Never._

Without a doubt, he knew what to do in her situation, there was no other way around. He had to, otherwise all the signs that fate'd sent her would turn out to be pointless, and Hinata believed in fate now, she absolutely did.

All that remained to do was to simply ask him. And that was actually the hardest part. Because...

Why would he want to help her? Of course, he wouldn't, of that she was certain. Besides, she had absolutely nothing to offer him in exchange.

Hinata sighed, closing her eyes. She needed to come up with an idea as soon as possible... after she would finally get some rest.

* * *

They got up pretty early in the morning – it was still rather dark out there, but Sasuke'd had more than ample time to sleep himself out.

Not that he was all that tired to begin with, though. He didn't feel like sleeping at all after he'd spend a few days in jail back in Konoha.

Predictably enough, same couldn't be said about the Hyūga girl whom he'd found sleeping next to him when he'd woken up; seeing how slow and tired she was now that they'd departed from their small camp after having a humble breakfast, he came to conclude that she'd hardly slept that night at all.

Well, her loss.

But it was also good for her, for it only meant that next time, she would be more disciplined and sleep better, being tired even more than yesterday.

She'd also gathered the courage to lay along with him, which he honestly hadn't believed she would before he'd witnessed it first hand. And that was another good little surprise to amuse him.

They walked their way to the east through the trees until sunset, changing the direction slightly from time to time, and only after a few hours he started to recognize the lands they were entering. The famous Naruto Bridge was now just a few miles away from them – he could point in the correct direction with his finger if he wanted to. The landscape was very familiar, especially after he'd visited this area with Suigetsu a few months ago, helping him to retrieve Zabuza's sword.

Slowing down a little, he turned his head slightly to look at Hinata. Whether it was bad or good for her, the girl resembled a zombie now, seemingly ready to fall asleep any second right on the ground.

But she had to endure it, he decided.

They'd been walking in the same direction for another quarter of an hour until the two of them finally reached the long, winding road that led to the bridge that was now visible on the horizon.

The young Uchiha narrowed his eyes, gazing forward. Something seemed off with the town on the opposite side of the broad river. There was a lot of smoke. Actually, way too much for a town like the one he remembered to assume that it was merely the smoke coming from multiple industrial buildings.

Was something bad happening there...?

He accelerated a bit, walking much faster now. Sasuke couldn't get rid of the feeling that they were going straight into a big trouble.

Exactly what he was looking for to have a nice little warm-up.

Now that he thought about it, anything could have happened there. The hidden villages had been too preoccupied with the war and its aftermath lately, so the news could quite possibly haven't reached them in time. It was very likely that even now nobody in Konoha was aware of what was going on in these lands.

And just to confirm his suspicion, a running figure showed up down the road, panting heavily and waving at them.

Activating his Sharingan, Sasuke covered up the distance between them with a single charge almost instantly, Hinata catching up a few seconds later.

The Uchiha wasn't a very caring person, yet still, he almost gasped as he looked at the middle aged man with long, black beard which was matted and covered with gore. There were multiple burns and bleeding wounds all over his body; he was dressed in some disgusting dirty rags, and his face was terribly bruised and horrified.

"You–two–are you insane? Where the hell are you going?" he shouted out, coughing and bowing to hold his knees so that he wouldn't fall down to fatigue.

"What happened to you?" asked Sasuke calmly, eyeing the man with slight caution. It was certainly not a genjutsu, he was quite real.

"They–those bastards–they attacked the city! Burned it down... Killing everyone...!"

"Who?" barked the young shinobi exactingly, grabbing the man's collar with his only hand and looking into his fearful eyes.

"Gatō's thugs!"

The Uchiha frowned. It didn't make any sense. Gatō had died years ago, hadn't he? Yet still, this man was certainly telling the truth, or at least he certainly believed his own words.

Sasuke let him go then, turning to the Hyūga girl who looked worried but still didn't dare to say a word, expecting him to announce his decision as the injured man rushed away from them.

"Brace yourself," he deadpanned in a few seconds, turning toward the town. "We're going in there."


	3. Alone In Darkness

**Chapter 3. Alone In Darkness.**

When he'd planned to travel to Nami no Kuni a few days ago, Sasuke imagined himself feeling nostalgic once he would enter the place, just like it was the last time when he'd visited these lands with Suigetsu. He had only a few memories of Team Seven that he truly treasured dearly, and their very first serious mission was one of them. It'd taught him a lot of important things and, in a way, back in the years, it'd been sort of a... revelation, for the lack of a better word to describe his complex feelings on the matter.

It was the mission that'd made him finally realize one simple truth. His time in the Academy was over for good along as well as his childhood, and that was where the real deal'd started for him.

Which is why seeing this place being demolished like this, bathed in fire and agony of its inhabitants, made him feel a bit irritated.

Of course, Uchiha Sasuke was by no means a nostalgic person. It would be laughable to assume he was, considering that merely a couple days ago he'd intended to destroy every single thing that was dear to him, feeling perfectly fine about that idea and its consequences.

This nearly absolute indifference didn't mean, however, that he didn't care of what was going on around them at the moment.

Even before he and the Hyūga girl had entered the small town, judging by the view from afar it'd already become fairly obvious to the shinobi that the damage caused by these 'thugs', whoever they really were, was truly immense.

And now, looking around himself and covering his face with his sleeve not to breath the stench and smoke, Sasuke could witness the outcome of the attack first hand.

Small huts and lodges like the one where Team Seven'd been staying years ago during that mission were already razed and burned down for the most part, with only a few of them still standing – probably purely thanks to luck, seeing how shaky they looked. Bigger houses and other solid constructions were either embraced with flames, half-destroyed or, if they were made of stone and metal, completely locked out from the inside with their windows boarded up. Apparently those who'd managed to survive the initial strike were now hiding within, but, actually, that was a double-edged sword − the survivors that were still out there had nearly no chance to find a safe place with all the doors being long closed.

Cries of pain, agony and despair could be heard from here and there, but it seemed that they were a bit late to the main event − most of the attackers had already been withdrawn from the town, and hearing the weakening sounds coming from the farthest end of the town, Sasuke came to conclude that most of them'd left approximately when he and Hinata had entered the Land of Waves.

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. Such a massive attack... and for what? To simply ravage this not so wealthy place...? It seemed rather unlikely to him. No matter who'd really attacked the town, their true goals were a mystery, just like their identity. And both these things needed to be investigated.

He turned to Hinata then, unsure what to do with her.

Looking around as well, the girl appeared to be pretty shocked and a bit disoriented by the chaos in the midst of which they'd come, but, to Sasuke's surprise, there was something else there in her at the moment. Even though he couldn't see those weird white eyes of hers for they were covered with the bandage, the body language told him more than ample about her current feelings.

Deep inside, she was _furious_.

Well, perhaps _too_ deep, but it was clearly visible to him nonetheless − she wanted revenge. She wanted to punish those who were guilty for causing all this destruction, but at the same time, she hesitated, evidently doubting that she could actually make it real.

He smirked. No, _revenge_ wasn't the word that suited her. _Justice_... more like it, definitely.

Perhaps it'd turn to be to his − no, to _their_ luck, in the end.

"T-This is−!" Hinata suddenly gasped, storming towards the small figure under the fallen pillar just a few yards ahead of them.

He activated his Sharingan to see through the stringy smoke that surrounded them. There laid a pinned child... a girl, and she was still alive judging by her chakra flow.

Making sure that Hinata wasn't paying attention, Sasuke stepped to the side lane hastily, carefully watching his companion's expression – the Hyūga was too preoccupied trying to help the poor kid, so she never noticed him getting away from them.

 _Splendid._

Taking a few more steps away from her, he went behind a big, half-ruined store, and then the ninja ran down the street as fast as he could, which was _really_ fast. He needed to get as far away from his accomplice as possible, preferably to get completely out of her range of sight, but he wasn't sure how far the girl could actually ser. Still, he had an idea of the way to hide himself from her, at least for a while. If he caught up with those people who'd caused all this to the town, he'd be able to melt into the crowd by concealing his chakra. Judging by the scale and the type of the damage they'd caused, there had to be at least two hundreds of them. And considering the distance as well as the amount of targets she would have to check, it would be incredibly hard for the girl to spot him among them, especially being in the middle of this hell.  
And even though Sasuke didn't like the improvised idea all that much, there was hardly any other option for them at the moment. They needed to split up, it would definitely work in their favor. He couldn't afford babysitting the Hyūga in a situation like this. He needed to find out what was going on and who were behind the attack, as well as to do something to help the situation before it became too late for the citizens.

In other words, he needed to act very quickly, and that would be impossible with Hinata around. There was no way in hell for her to be able to keep up with him right now.

But there was actually more to it, as he imagined.

First of all, he wanted to see what she was capable of without getting any help from other people. It wasn't like he was breaking some sort of agreement anyway – he _had_ told her that they were on their owns, hadn't he?

Second, and more important – _she_ needed to go through this.

The Hyūga'd always had someone to rely on. Her clan, her team, her sensei. He needed to get her out of her zone of comfort, and leaving her alone right now was a perfect opportunity to do that.

And last but not least, he needed to know if her mind could even endure a stress of such level. As far as he remembered, she was a chūnin, and this situation was equal to a B, well, maybe an A-rank mission at best. Compared to the war they'd gone through, it was supposed to be a child's play for a ninja of her level and experience. However, to him, she'd been seeming unstable ever since the moment she'd left Konoha, and he needed to be absolutely sure that his ward wouldn't break down, because somehow he felt that there were going to be a lot more stressing and dangerous things on his... _their_ way in this journey.

That's why he stormed toward the farthest gates of the small town, intending to catch up with whoever was responsible for this disaster and hoping that he would be fast enough for Hinata not to notice his disappearance.

Unfortunately, the attackers were already gone – he met little to no one on his way, not counting those few whom he saw dying, begging for him to save their lives.

But he never stopped and never showed any mercy to them. The only thing he could possibly do to help these people would be putting an end to their agony, and he didn't have time for this anyway. There still were people he could actually save, as well as those who needed to be interrogated and then executed for their crimes. That's why he'd ignored everyone and everything until he finally ran out of the streets of the ruined settlement, approaching the edge of the forest not too far away from the gates.

He glanced at the soil under his feet – multiple fresh footprints were leading to the trees, making it obvious where the thugs'd gone after finishing whatever they were up to within the town walls. And now they were probably heading toward some kind of a hideout considering that they were on an isle... or to the ships that were waiting for them on the coast opposite to the mainland.

Sasuke frowned, not slowing down for a second.

If what the man they'd met on the road to the bridge had told them was true, then it'd be pointless for these people to stay on the isle any longer, so he needed to hurry up. As far as he remembered, Gatō's compound was located somewhere in the Land of Water, and if these goons were indeed working for Gatō's company, they would be completely out of his reach should he let them get away now. It would simply take too much time to look for a ship to travel there in an attempt to trace them down.

He had to get to them before it was too late.

Running as fast as he could as he ventured deeper into the forest, Sasuke tried to make sure not to lose their trace, although it was getting harder and harder considering the increasing density of greenery, even though it was nothing compared to the forests that surrounded Konoha. The fact that it was already past sunset didn't make it any easier for him either.

Silently cursing, the Uchiha ran up to the top of a huge ash, continuing his chase in a more shinobi-like manner, jumping from one thick branch to another.

After about ten minutes of non-stopping pursuit he started to hear familiar sounds not too far ahead. The ninja smirked in relief – the coast was supposed to be still a couple miles away from him, so now they had no chance to get away from his... retribution.

And exactly as he'd assumed, in about a minute he slowed down, carefully approaching the spacious field that was now right in front of him.

There was a camp, and a really big one at that; in fact, it could be called a camp only because it was obviously temporary, for there were no big or complex buildings around, and no ongoing constructions either. Still, considering its scale, the place seemed more like a miniature village – there were even a few lanes lit by torches that were placed on top of the wooden poles near the tents and roughly made small huts. The only big and decent looking construction was located in the middle of the field, towering over the others. It had two visible floors, and it was also guarded by quite a few armed men. It reminded the Uchiha of the Hokage's office in Konoha a little bit, seeing as it was round-shaped and looked generally similar.

Sasuke scanned the area carefully with his Sharingan. Within the entire camp, there currently were only two ninja (not counting the teen himself), both staying on the second floor of the central building. All the others were just some thugs, exactly as Sasuke'd expected. Supposedly mercenaries, given the differences in their clothes and appearances.

The Uchiha hesitated a bit, thinking about the best possible course of action. The night was about to fall upon Nami no Kuni, so it was pretty dark outside the camp – he was sure that nobody was able to notice him from this distance. Should he just storm in and kill everyone on his way to their leader? Or perhaps simply use some large scaled attack to wipe out the entire territory without further investigation...?

After thinking for a moment, he decided to do neither of these things; instead, he jumped down to the ground and then the shinobi strode forward, infiltrating into the territory of the base. He didn't feel like hiding his face, for he wasn't that famous outside the ninja world and none of these people belonged to it. The probability of somebody recognizing him was next to none, and even should it happen, he had his Sharingan ready to take care of the possible unfortunate know-it-all.

Entering the lit area and walking past three men who discussed something casual really loud, Sasuke was barely able to hold back a snicker. Each of them was apparently in a very good mood after what they'd done back in the town just an hour ago...

What a bunch of foolish animals. In theory, even a few genin level ninja could just walk in, cover the whole area with explosive tags and then simply go out without even getting noticed, destroying all of them with no difficulty whatsoever. And to the Uchiha, these idiots were nothing but annoying bugs, or even lesser than that. He would deal with them later, for there was a more important task for him right now. To find, or rather to come in contact with their leader who was obviously the person that separated him- or herself from the others, guarded by those shinobi, so if he started a mess now, things could get too chaotic, making it possible for him to miss their escape which was not an option.

That's why he came to the entrance of the main building without any rush; the four guards that were eyeing him now with disgust, obviously thinking that he was one of the mercenaries, looked very different from the rabble in the camp. They were dressed in neat formal suits, their eyes were hidden behind black glasses and they had the identical katana resting within the scabbards on their hips.

In other words, they looked exactly like Gatō's bodyguards. But how could it be possible that Gatō was still alive...?

"What do you need, scum? Get away from here." One of the guards spit on the ground right next to Sasuke's feet, obviously ready to attack should the Uchiha try to object in some way.

The guard wasn't able to see his eyes in the shadow of the second floor which covered the upper half of Sasuke's face, but the clearly visible smirk of the teen evidently made him feel uneasy. Of course, from the man's point of view, there was absolutely no way for the stranger to get out alive if he decided to clash with them now – after all, there were those two shinobi which their leader'd hired, plus himself and the other bodyguards, not to mention the whole army of relatively loyal bandits around them all over their camp.

"I'd like to talk to the boss. Could you please let me in?" Sasuke asked in a neutral tone, watching the man's reaction with uncovered amusement.

The two guards gave each other short glances before putting their hands on the hilts of their swords.

"Are you deaf or what, you stupid pig? I told you to get the hell outta here!" the one standing before the ninja growled, taking a step towards the Uchiha and preparing to strike.

"Hn... And here I thought you had some manners unlike the others. Unsightly..." The moment the man drew his katana, he, along with his fellows, was put under a simple Sharingan genjutsu, which was more than enough for the likes of them to get disabled. The guards stepped back, looking now as if they didn't see Sasuke at all, the expressions of their faces being extremely bored just as they'd been prior to his arrival.

The Uchiha smirked, satisfied by the effect of his technique, and stepped inside the building silently. He didn't have to fight them – they were already dead anyway, just like everyone else in this camp. It was merely a matter of a few minutes.

There wasn't a lot of furniture inside the building, as expected – a few tables, a hand-made stove and two chairs, nothing more.

Not counting a few more guards who got put under the very same genjutsu right away, of course.

Sasuke walked past them to the stair that led to the second floor, picking up a tomato from the plate of the guard who was apparently having his dinner now – the Uchiha was pretty hungry as he hadn't eaten anything since their last meal in the forest back in the morning. The man didn't notice anything, of course, keeping eating like he'd been prior to the Uchiha's appearance.

To them, Sasuke simply didn't exist, and everything strange that would happen around them due to his actions was explained by their brains in the most simple and suitable for their minds way. It could be a gust of draft, a rat rustling in the corner of the room, or perhaps even an earthquake of low magnitude... whatever their fantasy could come up with. But it would never be anything worthy of their attention, this was the main purpose of the jutsu.

Taking a bite of the fruit, the teen walked upstairs slowly, wondering what was awaiting him there. He wasn't going to have a long talk with them should the leader really turn to be Gatō – perhaps only to ask how had he actually managed survive, out of pure curiosity on the teen's part. However, he had a serious doubt that this was the case. And, precisely as he expected, his doubt was confirmed the moment he saw them.

There was a beautiful woman that looked to be in her early to mid twenties, wearing a frank black dress, stockings of the same color, stiletto heels, elegant gloves that were covering her hands up to the elbows, and a broad-brim on her head. Her light brown wavy hair was pretty long, reaching her breasts; she was sitting at the big round shaped table with a long cigarette holder in her left hand and a pen in her right. Sasuke couldn't see her face distinctly, though – the room was pretty dark, the only things lighting it being a few candles on the woman's desk. She was writing something, too absorbed by her business to notice a stranger silently walking inside the room.

The shinobi that guarded her weren't any better – they stood near the windows opposite to each other, lazily watching what was going on in the camp outside. It wasn't surprising, though – no matter how strong or weak they were, nobody could expect another shinobi to sneak into this place in a god-forgotten land that they'd totally dominated with just a bunch of stupid swashbucklers an hour ago, let alone someone of Sasuke's caliber. They probably considered themselves the most powerful people within at least a hundred miles radius since it was a common knowledge that nearly every shinobi had participated in the Great War in some way, with only a few nukenin staying out of the conflict as well as a few low ranked ninja that had remained inside their villages to defend them from bandits, being too weak to be used in the war in any other way, even as fodder. And, considering their latest occupation, they probably didn't even know yet that said war was already over.

Sasuke's lips curved into a grin – they didn't have any chances against him even if they'd been cautious enough to notice his appearance, but their ignorance still amused him quite a lot. He was feeling like a cat toying with a bunch of mouses as he put them under a genjutsu only slightly stronger than the one he'd used on the guards downstairs a minute ago. The woman at the table winced and gasped, hearing the sound of their bodies hitting the wooden flooring synchronously, finally distracting her from her papers.

"What the ... Kozai? Suirin...!" Her voice was imbued with fear, which was no wonder seeing as the two of her strongest protectors fell down like that. She got up from her chair immediately and ran to the incapacitated pair, kneeling down to check on them.

Sasuke came closer to the desk, his footsteps being absolutely soundless, and took the list of paper she'd been writing on just prior to his appearance.

He frowned. It contained only some foreign names and random sentences that didn't click in his mind at all. Some of them were crossed, and some were narrowed with exclamation marks in front of them.

Was this a victim list? Or perhaps something more?

He didn't quite understand.

"So all the fuss you guys made was for this, huh?" He asked casually in a bored tone, as if he were actually talking to an old friend.

Perhaps it wasn't the best way to approach the woman – apparently he scared the supposed leader of this bunch of morons to a nearly dead state. She fell down on her, he had to admit, rather nice butt, reminding him of Hinata by suddenly being so clumsy which totally didn't go well with her delicate image. The woman rolled around then, quickly getting back on her feet with surprising gracefulness. She was pretty fast for a civilian – he didn't notice how she drew a dagger out of... somewhere. He wasn't sure where exactly she'd kept it considering how revealing her outfit was.

"W-Who the hell are you? Show your face!" she yelled, only to lose her voice the next second. A lightning flashed in the sky behind the window, making her face clearly visible for a split second which was more than ample for his Sharingan copy her features. She was pretty cute, beautiful even, and he could say so even though his taste was rather choosy. That was surprising. He hadn't expected to see Gatō, of course, but neither could he have imagined it to be someone like her.

The woman's eyes widened in horror as she obviously didn't understand why she suddenly couldn't squeeze a sound out of her mouth. And the sinister thunder strike outside didn't make it any better.

"Shut up. I'm the one asking questions here," he said bluntly, coming closer to her. She snuggled against the wall with her back, holding her weapon with her shaking slender hands, directed at the Uchiha.

Apparently his absolutely calm (almost mockingly so) face only made her even more frightened.

Sasuke sighed, stopping next to the trembling woman. Just few days ago, he'd fought the power capable of creating and destroying entire worlds, and what now? He was having to deal with such scumbags... life was so unpredictable.

"Calm down. I won't kill you if you don't annoy me, so you better do cooperate. I will ask a few simple questions now, and I want truthful answers. If you satisfy me, I will let you get out of here alive," her eyes widened slightly at the word 'satisfy', but he didn't pay attention to that, having no idea how exactly she'd interpreted it. "I'll kill you the instant you try to yell or ask for help in any possible way. Understood?" She nodded quickly, dropping her dagger and raising her arms to show him that they were empty.

He smirked, canceling the silencing genjutsu.

"Good. Now then, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Apparently, she'd expected this question as she replied right away in a silky voice:

"My name is Kura, I'm the CEO of the Gatō Company. We're looking for some of our property in these lands, as well as those who had stolen it from us."

 _The Gatō Company, huh?_ So at least some part of the information he had was true.

"Why did you cause this to the town?"

She looked confused now, he could tell this much by reading her facial reaction with the Sharingan in his right eye.

"Cause what, exactly? As far as I'm aware, the mercenaries had brought back some part of our goods not long before you showed up... and by the way, can I learn your name by any chance?" She gave him a sheepish, charming smile, still too afraid to try to seduce him openly which could be expected of someone like her, yet trying to be as nice and pleasant as possible.

"Shut up. I'm not going to say it for the third time – you are only to answer when I ask. Your thugs nearly destroyed the whole settlement, murdered hundreds of people, not to mention pillaging. So I'm going to repeat my question one last time. Why did you do that?" She couldn't see his face in the darkness, but he made sure to sound dead serious about all this which, in turn, made the woman stare at him in fear... and something else. Something he hadn't expected to see for sure.

She covered her mouth with her palms as her eyes widened even more, if that was even possible.

"W-What? They did WHAT?! I was told they were just to march in and perform a quick searching operation without any necessary violence! They've been _ordered_ to not kill anyone! How–how could this happen?" she nearly screamed desperately, not wanting to believe what the fearful stranger had just said to her.

He cursed silently, gritting his teeth in irritation. Using his dōjutsu to check her facial expression carefully again, he was absolutely assured that Kura wasn't lying.  
She knew nothing anything about what her mercenaries had done...

Stupid, naive woman.

The Uchiha let out a sigh of disappointment, stepping closer and thus revealing his face to her as he was now standing next to the window, even though it was still too dark for her to see him legibly.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm a shinobi of Konohagakure, the Hidden Village that is currently in the agreement with Nami no Kuni, according to which our job is protecting these lands. Your thugs have stricken the town that is under our patronage, therefore I'm here on behalf of the Leaf to decide your punishment, considering that you're the one behind the attack. The others will be executed shortly after our conversation is over. My decision will depend on how helpful you're going to be in this situation."

Even though she wasn't able to see him clearly, Kura couldn't help but notice how handsome the shinobi was. Although he looked a bit younger than her, being familiar with his kind, she knew that ninja matured much faster than civilians, and she was attracted by him now despite the age gap. And a ninja of his level, being able to neutralize the two former elite jōnin of Kirigakure effortlessly... On top of that, he was going to, how had he put it? _Execute_ the rest of them?

Somehow, she had no doubt that he could and definitely would back up this claim. He certainly wasn't an ordinary man. And Kura was smart enough to not provoke someone like him.

"Sasuke-sama... I think we have a big misunderstanding here. I didn't order any of it, I'm pretty sure you can check it if I'm telling the truth or not with some jutsu of yours? Anyway, I'm terribly sorry to hear about this disaster they've caused. But these people in the camp, they are just mercenaries. We had payed them some money for doing the job and protecting us, nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully we can find a way out of this situation without unnecessary blood spilling... can we?" she smiled, virtually begging him in her own way but still trying to keep her face up.

So, he was right, these goons were just hirelings. And apparently this Kura truly hadn't known what they'd done back in the town.

He eyed her up and down thoughtfully, trying to come up with a decision on his next move.

 _Wait._ What did she mean by saying ' _we_ had payed them'? Who the hell were these ' _we_ '...?

"Who was leading the operation in the settlement?" he suddenly asked, ignoring her attempts to look nicer than she was in order to avoid the forthcoming retribution as much as possible.

The woman opened her mouth to answer, but then she apparently realized something important, because the woman became absolutely silent, as if she'd just swallowed something too big for her own good.

And just as he began to lose his patience with her, she finally replied quietly:

"My husband, Gatō... he hasn't returned from there yet."

Now that was something surprising again. So Gatō was, in fact, alive? _Bullshit._ Sasuke'd been present back when the man'd been killed by Zabuza, so he knew for sure.

"Gatō is dead, isn't he? I've witnessed him getting killed here four years ago. Are you trying to lie to me?" he asked in a smooth and calm voice. Of course, he knew she wasn't, but oh well... it never hurts to startle them a little more while interrogating.

Kura shook her head quickly with her eyes widening in fear once again as she raised her hands defensively in front of herself.

"No, no-no-no! It is true that Gatō-san is dead. My husband is Gatō Jr. His son!"

So, that was it. That piece of trash had an offspring, and now... apparently this poor excuse of a man had decided to avenge his daddy who'd been killed here in Nami no Kuni, along with doing own business which his wife was keeping records on here in their hideout.

Now it all made sense to him. And, apparently, it did to her, too. The woman certainly didn't look pleased by this revelation.

"Sasuke-sama, I'll be completely honest with you... if my husband really is responsible for this, and it's fairly obvious by now that he _is_ , I want to assure you that I have nothing to do with it. If you're going to execute him, or anyone else here for their crimes, I will not interfere in any way. I don't want to have anything to do with criminals, my only concern is legal business... well, as far as it is possible in our world," she gave him a sly smirk, and the Uchiha realized in slight amazement that she was basically blessing him to kill her husband.

He wondered for a second what their relationship was like, then. She probably didn't love Gatō, and now she'd received an opportunity to get a hold of his corporation and money. That's why she was so willing to cooperate, with her own life being on the line as well, of course.

"Alright. You said he's still there, is that correct?" she nodded as he continued, "I'm going after him. I suggest you to follow me for now, because I'm going to destroy this whole place and eliminate everyone here once I'm out of the camp. I'll spare your life on one condition – you shall rebuild this country and invest in this town a lot of money. You can't erase the trauma your people have caused to the citizens and neither can you revive those who have been murdered, but at least you can make the lives of those who survived it better than they were before."

Kura gave him a bright smile, bowing in appreciation.

"It's the least I can do for them. I gladly accept your conditions, Sasuke-sama." She obviously realized that he could find her later again if she ever broke the agreement, so no kind of formal contract was necessary in such circumstances.

"Hn." He turned away, walking back to the ladder. "Do something to hide yourself yourself. Nobody should see your face, I don't want unnecessary attention."

* * *

A few minutes later, they left of the vast area of the camp and Sasuke stopped, turning back to face the base one last time. A lot of lightnings were permeating the night sky without pause, which Kura found rather unusual. There were just too many flashes, and it wasn't quite natural, was it...?

Suddenly, she heard a weird sibilant sound to her left which reminded her of birds' chirping. Quickly turning her head in the direction, the woman gasped, reflexively taking a step away from Sasuke – he was holding a lightning... in his bare hand no less!

It was only then when she noticed that the teen was actually one-handed – his left limb was stumped slightly above the elbow. But that was a matter of no importance to her at the moment, for she was wondering what on earth was he going to do with this... jutsu? Or whatever it was...

"Cover your ears. It will be really loud," he deadpanned, giving her a few seconds to do as he told her, and then she saw _it_ – the immense dragon formed out of countless lightnings high up in the sky, showing its head from between the heavy rainy clouds!

A few men in the camp raised their heads to check what was going on – of course, none of them had ever seen anything quite like this before.

Kura fell down on her butt for the second time this night, this time on the soil that was soaked with rain instead of the hard wooden floor (although the rough loose overall she'd taken from the hideout to hide her identity saved her from getting completely embarrassed), watching the amazing and dreadful phenomenon without blinking, her mouth being open in complete awe and shock.

And then Sasuke lowered his hand.

She regretted the same instant that she hadn't followed his advise to cover her ears – never before in her life had she heard a rumble this strong and loud, as well as a flash of such incredible brightness.

For a moment, Kura was sure she was dead, but then her eyesight began to return, even though she still couldn't hear anything but hum.

Rubbing her eyes with her knuckles, she tried to regain focus, only to see nothing but complete darkness which made the woman wonder if she was blind now. Only when another lightning pierced the sky, she sighed in relief. She saw it only for a brief moment, but it was more than enough for her. Everything was more less alright at the end of the day.

The entire place was completely demolished, though, with nothing solid she could see anywhere around remaining. Absolutely nothing but countless heaps of cobble and dirt...

She couldn't utter a single word when she heard his voice, calm and relaxed as if he was making a morning coffee instead of manipulating nature itself:

"Good riddance. Now then, let's go and find Gatō." He turned away and walked to the trees casually, never looking back.

Just... just who on earth could this man possibly be? A god...? Had a god descended upon earth to dispense justice, or was this actually what a true shinobi was capable of...?

Lost in her thoughts and assumptions and still too shocked to say anything, Kura got up as soon as she could, following the mysterious ninja into the darkness of the forest.

* * *

With a shrill cry, Hinata struck the fallen wooden pillar with her Jūken, breaking it in two big pieces with a strong crashing sound and sending a few flinders flying in different directions.

The little girl she intended to save was still breathing despite being unconscious – probably because of the smoke, considering that the child was lucky enough to be almost unharmed by the column that had basically nailed her to the ground.

The Hyūga squinted, examining the girl. The naturally black hair was now gray thanks to the dirt and dust that covered her whole body. She was wearing rompers which had once been pink, currently of an undefined color, along with a light blue T-shirt and a pair of small sandals. She was no older than three, maybe four at best, and Hinata could only wonder how had this little innocent creature ended up here without anyone looking after her. Were her parents dead now...? Most likely.

But Hinata didn't have any time to waste on reflecting and feeling sorry – she needed to save the child, and if she wanted to make it happen, the kunoichi had to make haste.  
Using her Jūken again, she tapped the girl's chest gently, sending a slight pulse of chakra into her solar plexus in order to innervate her neural system to awaken her, being as careful as possible to not harm her fragile body in any way.

Hinata wasn't a medical-nin, yet still, she knew the basic first aid techniques of her clan like the one she'd just used. Despite the fact that she'd never tried it on anyone younger than herself before, it seemed to be working as intended – the girl's body arched and her eyes opened wide the instant Hinata's soft touch reached its destination. Taking a greedy deep breath, the child coughed loudly – the air around them was still very far from being clean.

Hinata's lips pursed at the tension this whole situation had created for her. And where on earth was Sasuke ...? She certainly could use some aid right now. After all, it wasn't her own life she was fighting for... did he even have any empathy whatsoever...?

"Uchiha-san, please, I need your help!" she cried out, not looking around as she was too concentrated on her task. Taking her now pretty dirty jacket off, Hinata draped it over the girl's trembling body, wrapping her in it as if it was a protective cocoon and covering the child's mouth and nose with a piece of fabric to make some sort of a breathing filter for her.

"Easy, easy... it's alright, I'm here... nobody is going to hurt you anymore, it's over, I promise," the kunoichi whispered reassuringly in her ear, smiling as she saw how the little one's eyes relaxed at her words.

Raising her head up, Hinata finally took her time to look out for Sasuke, checking her surroundings at the same time.

The town was being slowly devoured by fire further and further with each passing minute. Those who'd managed to survive the onslaught were hiding now, either within those buildings that by some miracle remained intact, or down in the blocked basements. A few of them still fought the remaining enemy forces, though – just a quarter away from them a boy that appeared to be only a few years younger than herself was fighting three thugs at the same time. Hinata noticed that his arm was broken, so it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to last much longer against the clearly superior opponents.

In other words, she needed to hurry up if she wanted to save him as well.

The Hyūga got up quickly and grabbed the girl, putting her on the shoulder and holding the improvised cocoon with her left arm, and only then she flinched, dazed by the sudden, shocking realization.

Sasuke was nowhere around. There was no sign of him within the town walls.

He was gone.

Had he abandoned her on purpose, or rather something unexpected had happened to him that made him leave...?

Hinata sighed bitterly as her eyes were filling with burning tears.

Who was she trying to deceive? What could have possibly happened here to someone like him, of all people? She didn't even see any ninja around aside from the two of them, and even if there would've been some, she seriously doubted that there could be a shinobi capable of taking Sasuke down, let alone doing it so quickly.

No, it was probably another violent joke of fate. Most likely, he'd never intended to allow her to join him for real to begin with, and, of course, simply declining her request would've been too boring for someone like this Uchiha. Apparently he'd decided to humiliate her like this to make sure that she would get into as much trouble as possible for disturbing his prideful solitude.

However, there was no time to crying and self pity at the moment. No matter how much of a waste her life was, she still had those people around whom she could save. Because... so what if she was a failure? She was still a kunoichi, too. It was her job, and until it was done, her personal feelings needed to be tossed aside.

Hinata smiled sadly, picking up speed as she ran towards the nearly defeated boy.

 _Thank you, Uchiha Sasuke._

After all, he had given her another reason to fight. Asking him for something more than that would be an insolence on her part. He wasn't obliged to help her in anyway, and neither had he any reason to do that. Still, thanks to his invaluable lesson, she now knew what she had to do from now on. If she couldn't make her own life any less miserable, then she'd have to focus on making the lives of others better. Of that, she was quite capable.

 _Thank you.  
_

* * *

The big fat man whose body was covered with sloppy red tattoos raised his hand that was holding a big wooden cudgel and laughed clamorously, preparing to smash the head of the dark haired teen that was lying before him on the cracked cobblestone road, staring at him with uncovered hatred.

"Your done, lil' shit! I kill ya here, ha-ha-ha! Whatcha gon do, call er mommy one last time? Go ahead, I'll have fun with her too, ya lil' dog!" He laughed again, only to be interrupted by a spit in his face. The boy grimaced, looking pained, enraged, desperate... anything but feared.

The laughter died in the loogan's throat, his face becoming furious as well. But he didn't manage to say or do anything in response – before the man could realize what got him, he fell down to the ground, grasping his bleeding neck in a futile attempt to stop his now imminent death.

The boy's eyes widened in shock and awe as he watched a black haired girl dressed in some rags suddenly appear in front of him out of nowhere. She was moving incredibly fast for someone of her age, so he just couldn't believe his eyes seeing as she was literally destroying his opponents, killing the two of them the same second he noticed her appearance, and now beating the crap out of the third one with her bare hands... or rather a hand, for that matter, since she was holding some kind of a bundle with her left arm.

It was over in no time – the three men, or rather corpses now, stopped moving as she turned around to face him.

The boy gasped - not only she was so incredibly strong and skillful, but apparently she was blind as well since her eyes were covered with some kind of swathe.

But aside from that and her dirty clothes, she was nothing but beauty. In fact, he'd never seen anyone this beautiful and strong before. That's why he couldn't squeeze out a single word out of his throat as he watched her approach him.

"Are you alright? Can you get up?" Her soft and caring voice sounded similar to an elegant birds' singing to him, gentle and beautiful just like the girl herself.

"Y-Yeah... I guess..." He made a futile attempt to get up, coughing and spitting blood on the ground. And then he noticed _it_. The metal plate on her neck, shining under the warm rays of sunset. The Hidden Leaf emblem!

That settled everything for him.

"You... you're a ninja of Konoha! I knew you guys were going to save us! Ha-ha!" He shouted victoriously, laughing and pointing at her forehead protector.

She lowered her head for a moment, touching the plate with her fingers.

* * *

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ _You were supposed to hide it long ago_... _and now everyone will know that a kunoichi from Konoha has been here. This boy will most certainly tell every single survivor who helped him...,_ her face darkened at the grim thought. Perhaps... maybe this was why Sasuke had left? He'd given her more than ample time to notice this obvious flaw... and she was foolish enough not to.

She was truly a hopeless case, after all. Leaving her was really Sasuke's only logical option, and he'd done the right thing for sure.

Hinata sighed sadly, coming close to the boy and offering him her free hand to help him get up.

"Please, don't tell anyone that you've seen this sign. I–I forgot to take it off."

He took her hand with his own undamaged one, frowning at her request that sounded more like a plea. Her palm felt surprisingly soft for someone who had just mutilated the three men mercilessly and single-handedly, especially given that each of them was at least twice as bigger than her.

The boy got up carefully, trying to make his legs stop shaking while grunting and hissing in pain at the same time. He looked at her incredulously, then, apparently confused.

"But why would you want to take it off? You should be proud to wear it here. Konoha's ninja always come to help us, they are like guardian angels for us...!" he stopped as she came even closer to him. Her long and silky dark hair tickled his cheek, her lips nearly touching his ear and her impressive bust coming in contact with his own chest, which made him blush and gasp as she whispered:

"Because I'm a nukenin. A criminal who is being wanted by her village, dead or alive. You better not tell anyone about this, or else...," she didn't finish her threat, stepping away from him and looking through her bandage at the crimson red face of the boy who was now overwhelmed by a very wide spectrum of emotions. Although this was totally new to her, it was pretty easy to mess with someone like him who was a few years younger than her. Hinata didn't see him as anything but a child, so she couldn't possibly feel as shy around him as she'd always felt around her peers, let alone older men.

It always was rather easy for her to deal with children, after all. They were harmless and innocent... just like her.

"I–I get it, nukenin-sama! Please, don't kill me and my family!" the boy yelped, looking dead frightened by her words.

The Hyūga suddenly chuckled. So, he wasn't afraid of those thugs, yet still, he feared her, of all people, _this_ much? She was barely taller than him, and considering how much of a joke she was known to be back in Konoha...

 _Oh, the irony._ Perhaps it wouldn't be so hard to start her life anew elsewhere, after all. Now that she was away from her home village and nobody around knew how truly weak she was...

"Just call me Hi–Hina." It would be better if nobody knew her true name here in this country since they had pretty strong ties with Konoha. And the kunoichi couldn't afford being careless anymore. She'd lost enough due to her stupidity all through her life.

"Alright, Hina-sama!" The boy still seemed to be pretty afraid, but, apparently, he was quickly regaining his courage. "By the way, is that–is that a toddler you've got there?" he asked, pointing at the bundle that she was still holding.

"Y-Yes... it's a little girl. Could you please hold her while I'm escorting both of you to a safe place? There still are a few enemies around, so I might need both of my hands to protect you," said Hinata, taking the child off her shoulder and carefully passing the bundle to the boy.

He hugged the kid wrapped in kunoichi's jacked with his undamaged hand, but then shook his head all of sudden, looking at her with surprising resolve.

"I can't go yet. I need to find my–," he lowered his eyes to the little thing he'd been asked to protect, only to yell in shock the next second, "–sister! What–! Where did you find her?!" He stared at the nukenin who was now taking the headband off her deer neck and hiding it in a pocket of her pants. The boy'd been wandering through the devastated streets for nearly an hour, desperately trying to find his little sister, almost had died here, and now this... this angel from Konoha... she had saved his dear sibling, too! How could he ever repay her for everything she had done for their family...?

Hinata smiled, watching the boy who, apparently, was being overwhelmed with happiness, trying to hide the treacherous tears.

Yes, that's what she still lived for, after all. To bring other people hope, even if she didn't have any of it left herself.

"Now we are good to go. You better cover up your face the way I did to your little sister's – it's no good to breath all this smoke. Don't worry, I will protect the two of you with my life." She smiled reassuringly, seeing as his eyes shined with inspiration and joy. "Can you lead the way to some place where you two could hide for the time being? I'm not that familiar with this place," she muttered perplexedly, feeling a bit of her usual shyness return for a moment.

He nodded quickly, concentrating and looking at the heavily damaged road.

"Yeah... let's go to our home! It's pretty far away from here, but it's well protected. My family's supposed to stay there and wait for me to return... don't worry, Hina-sama, I'll lead the way! I understand it must be uneasy to orientate when you're blind... by the way, how are you able to fight without seeing anything? Is it some kind of a super cool secret ninjutsu? Could you please teach me something? I–"

"Keep quiet. Someone might hear you and we'll get in trouble," she suddenly snapped, making him shut up the same instant while Hinata herself frowned. Had she ever interrupted anyone before...? Probably not, but she really felt quite annoyed by his jabbering now, so... and, then again, it's not like her reasoning wasn't genuine...

Still, Hinata felt a bit ashamed. She hadn't had to be this rude, and now the boy was probably feeling hurt. She wanted to loosen the tension a little bit.

"By the way, I have told you my name, but I still don't know what is yours," said the kunoichi without turning her head in his direction, but still carefully watching his face change, relaxing a bit. It was only now that she realized that he looked pretty similar to Sasuke... that was weird. Or was it just her imagination...? Why was she thinking about the Uchiha this much anyway, especially now that he'd left her for good...?

"My name is Inari, Hina-sama! Glad to meet ya!" He smiled, lowering his head to check on his sister.

The rest of their trip to the boy's house was uneventful, but the atmosphere remained pretty toxic, making the Hyūga feel even more depressed than she'd been until now. Apparently most of the attackers were out of the town by now, and those locals who'd survived this massacre were still too afraid to come out of their shelters, which was probably a right decision on their part, to be fair.

Finally approaching the house by nightfall, they slowed down, feeling relatively safe for the first time in a while. The house was pretty big comparing to the others in the town, not to mention that it remained intact by some miracle. Hinata flinched as the front door opened wide. Two men and a woman walked out, running towards them quickly. which made the kunoichi raise her hands defensively for a second.

But then, the woman fell down to her knees next to Inari and sobbed, hugging her... son?

"Inari...! You've found her! Are you alright? Are you hurt? And who is this young lady...?" Her tear-stained eyes moved to Hinata.

"Oh, this is–"

"Inari, my man! I knew you'd make it! That's the spirit!" A tall man in his thirties who looked much unlike Inari, being dirty-blond and green eyed, came close to them as well, rustling the boy's hair. "Thank you for saving Yumi and protecting the family, kid."

He shook his head, pointing at the Hyūga.

"I did nothing, Kenji! She's the one who saved both of us!"

"Is that so...?" The older woman peered at her searchingly with a barely notable sign of suspicion in the black eyes. Apparently, she couldn't believe that a blind, fragile girl like Hinata could have possibly saved her children. Still, Hinata disliked the look she gave her for some reason the girl couldn't explain.

"That's to be expected from such a fine young kunoichi!" The third man said, almost laughingly. He looked much older than either of the others. "Thank you for saving the kids, girl. Are you from Konoha? Had a rough day, eh?" He wondered, looking at her amiably and making Hinata feel embarrassed. She realized that she probably looked awful now since she hadn't taken a shower in three days, her body and hair were dirty, and her only remaining clothes were all torn and covered with grime and gore all the way.  
She also realized belatedly why the woman was glancing at her in such way – the man named Kenji was basically eating her with his eyes now, which was probably no wonder considering how revealing her current outfit was, with her T-short being cut slightly above her waste, providing a good view of her flat stomach and emphasizing her C cup breasts. On top of that, her pants were covered with cuts and holes here and there, threatening to collapse any moment...

Hinata blushed against her will, hugging herself to cover at least some part of her skin and cursing silently at the same time. She wasn't supposed to show them that she was able to see what they were doing. Suddenly, the kunoichi felt rapidly growing pity for those who were blind for real unlike her. People around didn't even try to behave, knowing that they couldn't be seen anyway.

 _Disgusting..._ She couldn't remember if she'd ever experienced such strong negative emotions because of anyone in the past. Probably not, and this realization was bothering her quite a lot.

"No, I'm not from Konoha. I was traveling alongside my... companion... but we've been separated, and... well–," she muttered, eyeing the ground beneath her feet.

The old man laughed even louder now, clearly finding her attitude amusing.

"So you've lost your boyfriend there, huh? Not to worry, I'm pretty sure he'll find you in no time. He can't just let such a gorgeous lady slip away from him, can he?"

Her face reddened even more now, making Hinata want to go down the drain.

"He–he's not my–"

"Enough of this!" the older woman suddenly interrupted her, "Father, lead them to the house. Inari needs help, look at his arm! And the girl, too–"

"No." She to Hinata, evidently confused and annoyed by the sudden interruption. "I'm going back to the town. I can't stay here, there can still be those who might need my help."

Kenji snorted, looking at her with uncovered arrogance and disregard in the eyes.

"What help can a blind woman like you possibly do there...? You're–"

"I have saved your children, Kenji-san. Please, do not underestimate me. I'm a kunoichi," said Hinata in a surprisingly strong and calm tone, showing the self assurance she herself had never expected to be there.

The Hyūga then deliberately turned her head away and watched in the direction where none of them stood, knowing that it would look either mysterious or ridiculous to them... or rather both at the same time, but that was exactly her intention – to confuse them as much as possible. "If you want to aid me, I'd like to receive some supplies. And some clothes for myself, too. If you have any shinobi tools, I would take them as well."

Giving her a baffled look, Kenji shook his head disapprovingly and sighed, smirking.

"I'm afraid we don't have anything that suits for a _kunoichi_ like–"

"Wait, Kenji-kun! I might still have some tools remaining," exclaimed the old man, coming closer to them. "I'm sorry for our impoliteness, kunoichi-san. You see, it's not our best time right now... my name is Tazuna, and I usually deal with those ninja from Konoha who come to our town and need a flophouse ... or whatever else they might need here. You're not from Konoha, I suppose, but you've saved our family here, and I appreciate it a lot, I assure you. You already know Inari and Yumi. This girl right here is my daughter Tsunami, their mother, and this bloke is Kenji, her husband. He can be a douchebag sometimes, but, all in all, he's a nice fellow," Tazuna laughed at the man's embarrassed expression – he didn't say anything in response, turning his head away instead, apparently not daring to argue with the old man.

"My name is Hina," replied the Hyūga girl calmly, her face not giving away any of her emotions which made her look even more professional in their eyes, although they didn't show it either.

"O-oh... nice to meet you, Hina-san!" The old man smiled. "You see, what Kenji said there is almost true... I still have some supplies which those shinobi that resided in our house left, but I'm afraid we really don't have any clothes suitable for you. Don't worry, though. There is a store, eh... probably abandoned now, with all this happening... anyway, it's not very far from here. Kenji will lead your way, and there, you'll be able to pick something up for sure. He'll be guarding you on your way, don't worry."

Hinata frowned under her bandage, unsure how to react on Tazuna's words.

 _Guarding me...? The man who wasn't able to go and save his own daughter, sending another child instead, is going to protect me, the one who has saved his children...?_

They all seemed to be so clueless. Even in spite of her poor self esteem, Hinata couldn't help but find their attitude ridiculous and irritating.

"That won't be necessary, Tazuna-san. Protecting me, that is. I'd appreciate some help in finding the said store, though. And the tools you've mentioned as well, I might need them."

Tazuna looked a bit surprised by her reply, but if there was something that he'd learned about ninja throughout his quite long life, it was that appearances could be very deceiving. This blind girl seemed absolutely confident, and she _had_ saved Inari and Yumi somehow despite her petite appearance and blindness, after all... she certainly knew what she was doing, and they definitely weren't the ones to interfere with their useless advises.

"Eh, alright... suit yourself, Hina-san. I'll bring you the stuff right away." He walked back to the house, followed by Tsunami and her children. Inari managed to take one past peek his shoulder at their savior over before disappearing inside the building.

"So... you're really an almighty kunoichi, then? How is this even possible if you're blind, girl?" The Hyūga didn't know where this sudden feeling of uprising anger inside of her was coming from, but Kenji's nagging voice was starting to seriously piss her off, perhaps for the first time in her entire life. Maybe it was because of the tremendous amount of stress she'd went through during the last few days, resulting in the feeling of deep frustration and emptiness inside, but Hinata felt like her patience that until now had always seemed to be infinite was now waning with every passing second.

She wasn't going to allow them to know that she was weak or to be disrespectful with her, no. _Never again_.

Not in this new life.

"I'd rather avoid testing it if I were you, Kenji-san." In spite of the foreign emotions slowly overwhelming her, Hinata tried to keep her countenance and to not provoke him. She still needed the man to show her the road to that store, after all.

Unexpectedly so, he didn't reply despite obviously being on the verge of saying something really mean to the surprisingly cocky blind kunoichi. And seeing as he remained silent for once, Hinata tried to digress, satisfied with the short yet so long-awaited tranquility.

She decided that she certainly didn't like this man, and, strangely, she didn't feel like being polite with him either.

Fortunately enough, Tazuna was back in no time, holding a bag full of old ninja weapons and tools in his hands.

"Here you go. A few kunai, shurikens, some paper seals or whatever they are, and a smoke bomb... that's all we got, sorry. Hopefully it will be enough. Are you hungry, by the way?" She took the package from his hands, putting the bag on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Tazuna-san. I'm fine. We'll be going now." Hinata turned away from the old man, waiting for Kenji to lead the way which he did right away, reluctantly walking ahead of the kunoichi.

"You're welcome, Hina-san! This is the least we can do to repay you for saving the lives of my grandchildren... please, come back once your business back in the town is finished. My house will provide you with whatever you'll be needing. And I'm begging you, be careful out there... although it's probably stupid of me to say something like this to a kunoichi." He laughed again, though a bit awkwardly this time.

She turned her head and gave him a small, polite smile without adding anything else before following Kenji.

Perhaps it wouldn't have to be that bad, after all... she was able to make strangers respect her. Even this unpleasant man who was now leading her to the store... ever since finding out that she was a ninja, he hadn't said anything disrespectful. Well... almost. But still...!

These feelings of security and confidence were totally new to Hinata, but she liked them quite a lot. In fact, she craved to get more of it. It felt sort of similar to that beverage she'd tried the other day back in Konoha thanks to Kiba. Although it was quite unusual and weird, she rather enjoyed its effects. And this fact was a bit frightening to her...  
The Hyūga girl frowned. She believed that now she was finally beginning to understand Sasuke's attitude. He always was so strong, so adamant... so independent. He must have walked a very long road on the way to becoming what he was nowadays. Surely, babysitting weaklings like her would be completely uninteresting to him.

Yes... she understood the Uchiha now. Yet still, Hinata also hoped that one day, she would be able to get at least remotely close to his level.

She shook her head, biting her lip. Really now, how could she have blamed him for leaving her? Why would someone like him ever want to have anything to do with someone as miserable as her...? _Nonsense._ Once again she realized that he'd done the right thing by abandoning her. At least he'd made her realize some vital things about life, and for that she was going to stay grateful to the raven haired shinobi forever. _Who knows, maybe I will be able to thank him in person one day...?_

The kunoichi smiled at the idea and flinched the next second as Kenji suddenly tripped, nearly falling to the ground and cursing, pulling the girl out of her thought and making her look around them. The streets of the half-ruined town were still desolate and disquieting with nobody to be seen around. It was already completely dark out there, so the only visible lights were the dying flames here and there. Not like she required any light source to see anyway... _much unlike Kenji,_ she thought, giggling inwardly.

Now that they were closer to the central part of the settlement, she could see the remains of the attackers not so far away from them, approximately half a mile away. They were still there, apparently pretty busy with something near the entrance of some basement of a small church, or even a dungeon, considering its quite impressive size.

She was going to get them in no time. But first, she needed a new outfit suitable for fighting.

As they entered the abandoned store Tazuna'd told her about, followed by Kenji who tried to look bored and uninterested, but in reality felt quite scared and angry, Hinata smiled. Everything here seemed to be untouched by the bandits and marauders.

She started to walk slowly between the showcases, trying to get something that would match her goals.

Once again, Sasuke's words turned to be right – she had to steal these things, but for some reason this idea wasn't all that bothering to her anymore. And when she thought about it for a second, the kunoichi realized much to her amazement that it wasn't even the fact of abandonment of this place – she just didn't care anymore. She needed clothes, so she was going to take them.

Simple as that _._

Not noticing lustful glances coming from Kenji, Hinata turned away from the man, taking her damaged pants and T-shirt off, with nothing but her underwear remaining on. For some reason, it didn't bother her that much now that she was standing nearly naked in front of a foreign man, although merely a week ago she would probably have fainted in a similar situation.

But what was the difference? Why was she feeling so indifferent...? Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she now realized that she could kill this civilian the same moment he tried to do something inappropriate...? Or was it the environment that certainly wasn't suitable for this _something_?

She didn't know, and her mind was currently too preoccupied with more important things which lied ahead, for her to venture into these thoughts any deeper. Besides, she was beginning to doubt that they were even worthy of reflecting on them at all. She needed to capture the one who was responsible for this catastrophe, and she knew for sure where he was now. With her Byakugan still activated, Hinata could see him and his henchmen clearly.

They needed to pay for their sins. For all the innocent people who'd died in this town today. For children who, unlike Yumi, hadn't been lucky enough to get saved by her...

Hinata clenched her jaw and swallowed heavily, frowning.

She was going bring justice upon these monsters.

Never before in her life had Hinata had felt a strong desire to kill, and now she just couldn't understand what was wrong with her, what had changed so much. But was there something wrong in it at all? Maybe she was finally becoming what she always had been meant to be?

But then again, to her surprise, she realized that she didn't really care. She _liked_ it. This feeling of freedom that was so new and foreign to her, and so heady and addictive at the same time...

The Hyūga was so absorbed by these thoughts that she never bothered to ask herself the questions which thousands of ninja had asked themselves before in the similar situations. Would killing these criminals really settle anything? What about that eternal chain of hatred and vengeance Naruto'd spoken about with Madara and Obito back on the battlefield? What was she going to do once they were dead...? What would come next?

Instead of thinking about it, she picked a nice white unisex looking shirt with short sleeves. The cloth seemed to be almost formal, but other than that, not only it looked well in her opinion, but also, it kind of reminded her of Sasuke's outfit he'd worn during the war. And now that the initial shock and grief over his disappearance had already worn off, Hinata could say that she truly appreciated the things he'd taught her during the short time of them traveling together. She did quite a lot. That's why she liked the similarity, wanting it to be a tribute as well as a memento of her stupidity and weakness of the same time.

Not to mention how well it narrowed her curves, but she wouldn't ever admit that it was also one of the reasons, of course.

Buttoning her new shirt unhurriedly, the kunoichi also chose herself a new pair of pants. These were a bit shorter than her previous ones, and certainly more tight. In fact, they looked a lot like the ones their former Hokage Tsunade wore, but the color was different as these were dark blue, just like the night sky high above her and Kenji.

Finally, the girl took a simple dark gray, nearly black cloak that reached her knees, once again, looking similar to Sasuke's (although she didn't think about it this time) as well as a new pair of sandals.

Looking at her reflection in the big mirror on the wall, she smiled, satisfied with her new outfit. If not for her hair that was traditionally long, just like in case of every adult in her clan, she looked nothing like she had been a few days ago.

"Thank you, Kenji-san. Feel free to go home now. I'll go alone from here on." Hiding her weapons and ninja tools under the new cloak, she walked out of the accommodation only to be followed shortly by the confused man who, apparently, felt slightly confused, being roughly torn out of whatever he'd been thinking while he'd watched the almost naked kunoichi dress up.

"H-hey! Are you freaking insane? Alone? What do you think you can do on your own _there_? It's a suicide!" yelled the man, clearly realizing that she was going after the ones who had caused the disaster in his town and trying to keep up with her now surprisingly fast walking speed.

"I don't need your help. Please, return to your house. It will be dangerous where I'm going, you might get hurt," she said neutrally, her voice being absolutely impassive.

Apparently she'd hurt his pride by saying this, because then he exploded:

"Just who do you think you are, you idiot girl? There is no way in hell I'm leaving you alone now! If anything, _I_ will protect _you_ just like the old man asked me to!" he snapped, only to feel even more annoyed the next second by the indifferent shrug of her shoulders.

* * *

A few minutes later, they came close to where the hostile men were still standing. The majority of them had already gone down into the big dungeon Hinata'd seen with her Byakugan before. There were only two thugs at its entrance right now, and she didn't want to waste any more time.

Without hesitation, she rushed toward them, knocking both the men down before they could even react.

Kenji watched her movements with his eyes wide open, his expression somewhat between amazed and depressed at the same time. He _could_ see now why the girl was so confident. In fact, he regretted his previous arrogant behavior deeply, seeing what she could potentially have done to him should he have taunted her a bit more.

She'd killed these two guys who were bigger and stronger than him, let alone the girl herself, within just a second, as if they were nothing but a prey to a very experienced hunter. And until this day, Kenji had never witnessed a ninja in action. Was _this_ the power of a kunoichi...? But... she looked so innocent and helpless, especially with her eyes covered with that piece of fabric... and _how_ in the name of heaven was she able to move like this if she was blind...?

Just how little did he truly know about ninja...?

He flinched then, seeing as she disappeared through the door of the basement that the now dead goons had been guarding until their arrival, and hurried to catch up with the mysterious girl that had shocked and amazed him so much.

There was a long, _really_ long stone stair that ended up in the beginning of some very old passage, as far as he could see. Apparently, Hina was already down there since he couldn't see her from the point where he stood.

Of course, he was no match for her when it came to speed – after all, even mediocre ninja moved on completely different level than regular men, and she certainly looked anything but mediocre to Kenji.

Carefully following the way down into the dungeon, he barely managed to react in time when something big almost had demolished his skull, cutting the air just an inch away from his head.

Jumping away, Kenji turned back, gasping as he saw one of the supposedly killed goons try to hit him again with the two-handed axe of impressive size.

So she hadn't slaughtered them, just knocked out... but why? Why hadn't she killed these monsters when she'd had a perfect opportunity...? She was a ninja, for gods' sake...! Killing was their job, not his!

Dodging another strike, Kenji rushed forward with a desperate cry, knocking the man down onto the rough stone floor of the passage. The bloody thug dropped his weapon while falling, to the man's relief. Evidently the injure Hina'd caused to the bastard made him pretty clumsy now, which was only to Kenji's favor, giving him a decent chance to defeat his foe.

Neither of them muttered a single word during their fight, so the only sounds that could be heard in the dungeon were grunting and furious growls coming from each of them from time to time. In about a minute of exchanging heave hits and kicks, with blood tickling down into his eyes and thus making not so good in the darkness vision even worse, Kenji finally managed to notice an opening and, with the last piece of his strength and another anguished cry, he hit the goon's face with his elbow, breaking his jaw and thus knocking the man out.

Sitting on top of the defeated thug and allowing himself a few seconds to relax and catch his breath, Kenji tried to focus all of his remaining energy and got up on his shaky legs. He still needed to follow Hina... no matter how ridiculous this could sound, but...

In order to stay alive. He wouldn't survive another encounter with a bandit, that's for sure.

He walked slowly through the passage, seeing the bodies of those whom, he presumed, Hina'd incapacitated on her way. None of them was moving, to Kenji's relief, and it also made him sigh. She was truly frightening and dangerous, this girl... He made a mental note not to ever mess with her again.

In a minute or two, he finally came to the ancient wooden door that was half open. Walking through the doorway, he gasped as he found himself in a very big hall that was lit by the torches on its walls and stone pillars that were covered with bizarre, unfamiliar ornament.

It looked like some secret hidden temple to him – there was a lot of various luxurious things around, and the interior was quite rich all in all. But,in the middle of the hall... He didn't pay any attention to a few bodies that lay here and there, either unconscious or dead. No, what he saw was much more shocking and terrifying to draw his attention.

Hina was tied, pinned against some kind of an ancient altar, gagged and surrounded by three shinobi with Kirigakure signs on their forehead protectors. There was also a rather young looking man who was wearing an expensive, neat suit which looked a bit mismatching given his surroundings. He was about as tall as Hina, and actually looked pretty ugly overall, as if he was half-human and half-gnome from some fairy tale. He also looked like one of those businessmen who often used shinobi as their bodyguards. Was he the one who was behind the whole ordeal in the town?

The kunoichi was still trying to fight, but the short man made sure that she could barely move, certainly not being free enough to harm him and his subordinates in any way.

"So a hot bae like you killed all of my men there, eh...? I find it hard to believe... but, oh well. You'll repay me for that right now, little doll... with your own body, ha-ha! Seems like a good deal considering that they were just some canon fodder, isn't it? So much unlike you... I smell some profit here!" his chuckle sounded truly nasty as the man began to unbutton Hina's new shirt while the girl twitched convulsively with a disgusted and feared expression.

Kenji gritted his teeth. He needed to save her. But what could he possibly do to those who'd defeated someone like her...?

No matter. He still _had_ to. He was the man here, after all.

"Hey, you, bastards! Let her go right now, you fuckers!" he shouted out as he moved toward the altar slowly, limping and suppressing the moans of pain that came out of his throat reflexively.

The ugly man turned to him as well as the shinobi, surprised by his improvised heroic entry. _Good._ Perhaps Hina would come up with something if he bought her enough time...

But he could see it, her efforts were absolutely futile. She was too tired and hurt to break out of the ties.

It seemed like the end for the two of them. She's going to be raped and killed, and he, well... hopefully simply killed.

But he couldn't go down without a fight, could he? He was Kenji, after all! He was the head of his family! And beside that, he'd always dreamed of being a brave warrior... this was his chance to shine and to have a honorable death, at least.

"Who are you, fool?" The short man yelped and laughed. "This chick's boyfriend or something? You look like shit, though... so I doubt she would hang out with some squalor like you," the midget chuckled again and this time, the shinobi sneered at Kenji as well.

"I–!" He clenched his fists, having no idea what to do or to say.

This was the moment when he nearly freaked out as he heard the calm, yet somehow threatening voice behind his back,

"Yeah, I'm pretty surprised as well. Still, it is better than I expected. You have some potential, after all. Not bad... Hinata."

Before Kenji could turn around to face the mysterious newcomer he gasped, feeling the surreal horror consuming him as he watched the two shinobi scream in terrible pain while their bodies were devoured by the dreadful black flames.


	4. The Uchiha Clan

**Chapter 4. The Uchiha Clan**

Everything from that moment on happened so fast that if somebody asked him to retell the story later, Kenji wouldn't be able to say what exactly was going on in those few seconds after the two shinobi had gotten ignited. It was simply too blurry and chaotic for his eye to follow. But some things, he managed to notice nonetheless.

First of all, the third Kiri ninja sliced Hina's throat with a kunai.

Before Kenji could somehow react to it, the strangest thing he'd ever seen occurred. It was even more stunning than the devilish black fire that'd already ended the lives of the other two.

The remaining man suddenly disappeared, or maybe he'd shifted his appearance instantly – Kenji wasn't sure. Instead of him, there now stood a raven haired boy who was dressed in a black cloak with high collar and looked about the same age as Hina, if only a tad older than her. But more importantly, he was holding the deadly kunai just a fraction of an inch away from her throat! Apparently, he'd stopped the weapon a split second before it would've killed the girl.

At the same moment, he heard some woman gasp and shriek behind his own back, followed by a dump on the hall's cold stone floor. Turning around as fast as he could, Kenji realized why she'd reacted like this - the same shinobi that'd almost killed Hina was now lying just near the brown haired young woman's left foot with his skull pierced by a sword, his body slightly twitching as the last signs of life were quickly leaving it for good.

"Wha–what the...!" Both him and the female newcomer yelped simultaneously, turning their heads towards the boy and Hina in hope to get some explanation.

But then something else drew their attention.

If one thought by looking at their faces that what it were them who were truly utterly shocked and terrified at the moment, that would be a big mistake.

The one who was really dead scared was no one else but Gatō himself, who was desperately trembling as he tried to crawl back to the halls' ancient wall after he'd fallen on his butt in an attempt to avoid getting caught by the omnivorous black fire.

"Just–just who the heck are you, guys...?" Kenji mumbled to the beautiful, well dressed woman that was standing next to him, not really noticing that she was equally as terrified by the things they'd just witnessed.

"I–I'm afraid I don't know much more than yourself...," she barely managed to squeeze out these words, to which he frowned.

One didn't have to be genius to realize that what'd just happened to those shinobi was the boy's work then, seeing as the woman that'd accompanied him to this dungeon obviously had no idea what was happening. Therefore the guy was a ninja, too, just like Hina. It also meant that the woman and the mysterious shinobi most likely didn't know each other very well.

Meanwhile, said woman stepped forward hesitantly which made the teen bark immediately without looking in their direction:

"Stand still, Kura! Don't come close to the fire."

Kenji frowned and swallowed nervously, wiping sweat and blood off his forehead. Kura was her name, then. That wasn't exactly the most pleasant way to meet someone, but oh well... at least both of them were alive. For now, anyway...

He narrowed his eyes Hina. She didn't look scared as the boy turned his head and reached out for the ropes she was tied with, but her eyes were wide open as if he was the last person in the whole world she'd expected to see here. But other than that, she remained perfectly calm. Certainly way too calm for someone who'd almost died just a moment ago.

In other words, the boy and Hina probably knew each other, especially seeing as he'd acted so fast to save her and was untying her at the moment with a barely notable grin on his lips.

Beside that, he'd referred to someone named Hinata. There was nobody else alive aside from the four of them and Gatō around, so who on earth was Hinata...? Or maybe...?

It all finally clicked in Kenji's mind. Apparently, Hina's true name was Hinata. The boy'd been talking to _her_ when he said it. And she'd also mentioned to Tazuna that she'd come to their country with a companion...

 _Wait a second!_ He gritted his teeth, moving his gaze to the ninja.

What'd this douchebag said about him there? He'd actually agreed with the ugly-ass shorty! He'd been surprised and seemingly disappointed to see Hina with him, Kenji, and he also considered him scum...

The injured man's face twisted angrily as he snarled, watching how Hina, or rather Hinata got back on her feet and was now rubbing her wrists, still staring at the boy with the expression that could be characterized as shocked and intrigued at the same time. It was clear that she was expecting him to say or do something. Perhaps to give her some sort of explanation? Maybe they were even a couple...? They looked pretty good next to each other, as much as he disliked to admit it...

But then Kenji sighed, looking away shamefully. What was he thinking anyway? The guy could do things beyond his comprehension – taking down those elite ninja effortlessly, within a split second... Naturally from his point of view, compared to him, Kenji was indeed just some scum. And although this was also hard to admit, perhaps the boy's words were justified to an extent, after all... but still...! It didn't make them hurt his pride any less. He'd tried to save the guy's girlfriend or whoever she was to him from getting raped and killed, hadn't he? But then again, could he possibly have saved her if this brat hadn't appeared just in time to do the job?

The answer was painfully obvious, so he just lowered his eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to calm down. Provoking these people wasn't an option, that was about the only thing he was sure about at the moment.

"Why are you here?" asked Hinata meanwhile, breaking the oppressive silence that'd fallen upon everyone in the dungeon a minute ago, the only sound breaking it being Gatō's pitiful sobs.

She didn't look surprised anymore. Actually, she was frowning, apparently displeased as the ninja avoided her eyes, on purpose or not. Instead, he gripped her chin, which made her flinch and gasp, and then took a closer look at her neck, apparently trying to see any signs of damage before letting her go a second later.

So they were in a quarrel or something like that? At least that made some sense. Taking away their amazing abilities, they were just two teens. Nothing surprising here...

"What do you mean?" he replied, sitting down on the altar to which Hinata'd been tied to just a minute ago.

His response clearly didn't satisfy her.

"You–you know what I mean... you've left me to deal with this situation on my own, I'm no fool, I saw it. You simply disappeared. I don't understand..."

So she was able to _see_ , after all? Well, it made sense, too, considering the way she fought, but... how? Oh, damn it, never mind. Was this really any surprising after everything he'd seen today? Probably another stupid ass ninja trick or something like that...

A quiet cough to his left interrupted Hinata, making her close her mouth and turn at the woman's direction, frowning even more.

Kenji smirked. Great freaking job, dude. Now you're certainly in a big trouble... women's jealousy could be absolutely dramatic and nasty, Kenji knew it better than anyone else, he was sure.

"Uh–Hinata-san...? I don't mean to interrupt or be rude, but your–ugh...," she looked at the boy perplexedly, probably wondering about their relationship's nature as well. "I don't know what happened between you and Sasuke-san, but... Just for your information, he'd chased Gatō's little army until he–well, freed me from them, I guess... Actually, he'd destroyed their base just before he headed to this place. He simply needed someone who knew Gatō whereabouts to lead the way, so I don't think there is anything for you to–"

"That's enough, Kura," the teen suddenly snapped, giving the woman a warning glare before turning back to Hina... or Hinata.

"We'll talk about it later. Right now, there are more important things at hand. Like Kura said, I've got rid of all of Gatō's lapdogs. However, it's not over just yet..." He jumped off the altar, slowly walking toward said man who looked like he was ready to wet his pants, unable to move his wide open eyes away from the doom that was closing in on him.

"What are you going to do?" asked Hinata quietly, gazing at Sasuke's back worriedly, but the boy just waved her off dismissively, coming closer to the ugly man.

"You," Sasuke squatted in front of him so that their eyes would be on the same level which made Gatō's tremor even stronger if it was even possible seeing as the man was about to lose his conscious out of dread. "I wonder... what should I do to you now? We have quite a few options here...," Kenji couldn't see Sasuke's face, but somehow he was sure that there was a grim smirk now on the boy's face right now. "You see, I've been talking to Kura about you and your business... if it happened anywhere else, I couldn't care less. However, by attacking Nami no Kuni, you've crossed our interests here. My interests, to be more accurate. By doing this, you've repeated your stupid father's mistake–" Gatō suddenly gasped, pointing at Sasuke's face with his horribly trembling hand.

"It's...! It was you...!" The man cried out wickedly, only to scream in terrible pain a moment later, the bones in wrist breaking soundly as Sasuke gripped his arm that happened to be right next to his nose, which the shinobi clearly wasn't fond of.

"Yes, it was me," said the teen, ignoring Gatō's anguished screams. "Don't move unless you're told to. And shut the hell up if you don't want me to break another limb of yours." Gatō's voice died off instantly, followed by Sasuke's satisfied nod. Apparently the man feared pain a lot more than death itself. Typical for his kind...

"I am supposed to decide what to do with your pathetic life now. Simply killing you would be no good, for I... try to avoid it nowadays. But I don't want to hand you out to Kura either. Even though we've come to an agreement, I still don't trust her enough." Kenji could hear how the woman swallowing nervously as she was listening carefully to their conversation. So, she knew Gatō... but at the same time, Sasuke didn't trust her. Who was she then, actually...? Gatō servant?

"But then again, I could make an exception and kill you right here, that would save us a lot of trouble, don't you guys think so?" He asked, his question clearly being purely rhetorical as he slightly turned his head towards them.

"No–no, please, don't kill me! I'm begging you!" Gatō yelped again, desperately sobbing.

The boy suddenly lifted up, turning to Kenji which made the man straighten the same moment.

"It's decided then. You live in this town, don't you?" Kenji nodded carefully, still a bit afraid to open his mouth. "Good. Then take this piece of shit and bring him upstairs. We'll let the citizens decide what to do with him."

Kenji smirked, taking a step to Gatō who was still shaking and crying, but a lot more quiet now.

Perhaps the boy wasn't that bad, after all?

* * *

Finally walking away from said piece of shit, Sasuke felt a bit uneasy about the upcoming conversation with Hinata. But what bothered him the most right now wasn't exactly what she thought about him leaving her before, no. What made him feel irritated was that he actually cared enough to think about it to begin with. And not only about Hinata, but this town, too. About these people around him. He wasn't used to care about anyone. Throughout the last few years, all that'd truly concerned him beyond anything else were the targets of his revenge. First his brother, then Konoha, then Obito and Madara, then Kaguya and Black Zetsu. Simple as that.

But now, things were getting complicated. And deep inside, Sasuke felt quite confused. He wanted to make everything right, but he was awfully afraid to fail. For the first time in many years, the consequences of his actions _did_ matter to him. He couldn't allow himself to ignore the collateral damage caused by his actions anymore.

Back at the time, leaving Hinata'd seemed like a good decision. And now that he looked at her, he could see the consequences of his actions which made him feel a bit troubled, although they were mostly positive in his opinion.

Firstly, she'd finally changed her outfit. It wasn't that big of a deal in general, for he couldn't care less what she chose to wear, but it certainly was a solid first step in the right direction for her considering that she needed to change literally everything about her life if she wanted to grow up and get over her past. Besides, it would be foolish to deny that her new clothes suited her a lot better than her previous ones. And although he'd never admit it even to himself alone, she'd become a bit of a pleasure to his eyes, looking way more feminine now than before.

Secondly, there'd been a change to her attitude and behavior, too. She certainly had become more confident, her usual annoying stuttering was almost gone, and the Hyūga'd even dared questioning him after he'd freed her... That'd been rather cocky of her, hadn't it? And it also was exactly what he wanted from her.

 _Seems like everything is going just as planned_ , Sasuke thought as they were walking out of the hall with Kenji and Kura striding ahead of him and Hinata, holding Gatō together. The short man'd stopped trying to fight his imminent destiny by now and, apparently, simply waited for his execution to come, silently praying to whatever god such excuse of a man could believe in.

Passing by the dead shinobi at the doorway and watching Hinata's back while, at the same time, trying to decide what to say to her later, the Uchiha bowed down to retrieve his sword from the corpse.

He suddenly stopped and flinched then, noticing something on the dead Kiri ninja's body that definitely wasn't supposed to be there.

It was a small, barely visible tattoo on the back of his neck. Even with Sasuke's Sharingan activated, it was hard to notice in the darkness, but this symbol... he could recognize it anytime even if he didn't have his eyes at all.

It was the Uchiha Clan's crest!

"What's wrong, Sasuke-san?" he heard the distant voice of Hinata who stopped, too, looking at him with confusion and curiosity.

Carefully touching the mark, Sasuke cursed aloud, slamming his fist into the cave's rough wall.

One doesn't simply have this symbol on his body. Was the man an Uchiha? Perhaps some apostate that'd left the clan prior to the massacre? Or a descendant of one...?

But it didn't really matter now that the man was dead. He, Sasuke, had killed the guy who was very likely the last existing link to his family.

Oh, the irony.

And all this because a stupid girl that he'd decided to help... he was such an idiot!

The Uchiha roared in frustration. What was he going to do now? To use Rinne Tensei on the dead shinobi to revive him and get the answers he needed? Sasuke doubted that it would be possible. At least not in his current state. Even though he didn't show it and not that weaklings like Hinata could possibly notice it anyway, only a few days had passed since his fateful duel with Naruto at the Valley of the End, and the Uchiha hadn't completely recovered yet. In fact, he had access to only a little part of his full power at the moment, which was the reason why he avoided unnecessary usage of big moves which took significant amounts of his chakra.

That's also why he'd used the pretty exotic technique that he'd only tried a couple times before, Kirin, to wipe out Gatō's camp – because it took a very small amount of chakra to perform considering that it was pure nature energy manipulation, and the weather'd been on his side this time.

Truth to be told, he already felt pretty exhausted now after using Amenotejikara to save Hinata from the kunai and Amaterasu to kill the mercenaries at the same time. To recover completely, he would need another week or two in a bed without moving much, but he couldn't stay in Konoha any longer. At least not now. After what Madara, Obito, Itachi and he himself had done... people feared the Uchiha clan, and they feared Sasuke himself specifically. Their wounds were still very fresh, and they didn't trust him at all.

In his opinion, it was only natural that they didn't.

Besides, this was one of the main reasons behind the long journey he'd planned. That was also why he'd decided to save this town. Not because he really cared for these people, no. While the current corrupted system still existed, such things were inevitable, it couldn't be helped in general, so there was no real point in preventing a shot from reaching its target when there was the infinite barrage of such shots, constantly firing here and there. However, he needed his good name back. For himself and for his clan that he was planning to revive at some point in the future.

Of course, he did trust in Naruto and his ideals now, but it would be impossibly foolish not to grant his friend all the support the Uchiha could potentially do. And he, Sasuke... he was capable of lots and lots of things. But if he was to help people, these people needed to be willing to accept his help first, and right now they most certainly wouldn't want it. In order to make it happen, he needed to have a good reputation with the whole world.

It shouldn't be too hard, he assumed. After all, the former jinchūriki of Ichibi, Sabaku no Gaara, had managed to become exalted in his village after all the murders he'd committed. Moreover, he'd even become the Kazekage. Nothing was impossible, then. He simply had to try a bit harder than the redhead, but hard work never was an obstacle for the Uchiha.

That's why he was going to help everyone on his way as much as possible. And that included helping Hinata as well, of course. That's also why his departure from Konoha couldn't have been postponed any longer despite his weakened state. Besides, he assumed that he wouldn't be needing his full power anytime soon since the war was over and well, he was extremely strong even without it.

But then again, let's get real. Even if he was in his prime now, performing Rinne Tensei no Jutsu would most likely drain him out to the point where this very shinobi would just kill him rather easily the moment he would awaken. The technique would also take too much of his remaining vitality, most likely cutting his lifespan significantly if not actually killing him. Thus it was an idiotic idea, and he couldn't afford it anyway.

But then he suddenly smiled, sighing in relief as he came up with a solution.

There was a way to get the information he required, all wasn't lost yet. The guy certainly knew something about his clan, or at the very least about the nature of this mark on his skin. Sasuke merely needed to question him, and the man didn't have to be alive for the Uchiha to do it. After all, beside all the other flaws of this idea, resurrecting him would be a gamble even if he could do it now without such a great risk. What if the man actually didn't know anything at all? It would turn to be a total waste.

There was another, a much safer way.

"Hinata, give me some sealing paper," he ordered the girl who now looked even more confused and cautious, probably thinking that he wasn't all right with his head. Nevertheless, she came close and handed him a piece of paper without saying anything. He didn't notice how her hand twitched slightly when his fingers came in contact with hers when he took it, as if the touch itself was electrifying.

After soaking the paper with the man's blood, Sasuke put it down onto the floor and formed a hand seal. A few black lines covered the patch before turning into a curlicue on the now clean white surface instead as the blood vanished completely, sealed with his chakra. Carefully hiding the precious item in his pocket, the ninja got up, pulling the sword out of the corpse's head with a nasty sound, and turned to Hinata who was still looking at him, standing just a yard away. She seemed puzzled and slightly worried but, oddly enough, there was no sign of the fear he'd grown accustomed to in her eyes anymore.

The rest of their party was already out of the dungeon, so they were alone down there at the moment. It was a perfect opportunity to have the talk.

But the time for it had yet to come, he decided.

Giving her a light 'never mind' head shake he passed her by and walked upstairs to the exit. The girl who looked like she was seriously questioning the state of his mind right now after what she'd witnessed gave the mysterious corpse a final confused glance before following Sasuke after hesitating for a few seconds.

It was already deep at night out there, and the town's heavily damaged streets were still empty, the survivors apparently waiting for the dawn before they would come out of their shelters. Kura and Kenji were quietly talking to each other as he and Hinata appeared. They weren't moving an inch away from Gatō, although it wasn't really necessary as he simply sat on the cobblestone road and peered into the space before him, silent and completely defeated.

"I've changed my mind," said Sasuke, making the older couple flinch – for simple people like these two even casual movements of ninja were absolutely soundless. "I'll be taking Gatō. Should anyone ask what happened to him, you are to say that he's been burned down there along with those two."

Ignoring their baffled expressions, he bit his only thumb, slamming his palm onto the ground.

" _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_ " A few concentric circles of seals appeared on the road, followed by a huge cloud of smoke filling the void street only to reveal something that made them all, even Hinata who was familiar with the technique, hold their breaths in awe.

" **I'm at your service, Sasuke-sama.** " The immense dark-blue snake that was bigger than the whole quarter where they stood bowed its head down before the Uchiha, greeting him and awaiting for his command.

Sasuke nodded at Gatō who seemed to snap out of his inner world at the creature's appearance, looking at the monster his eyes wide open in fear and apparently expecting to get killed any second.

"Aoda. I want you to take this piece of trash to your realm. Hold him there for a few weeks, but be prepared to take him with you once I summon you again. Do whatever you want to him, but he must stay alive, so make sure he doesn't kill himself."

The snake lowered its head submissively.

"As you wish, Sasuke-sama. Anything else I can assist you with?" replied Aoda in an awkwardly polite manner. Everyone could see how strong was the giant snake's respect for the Uchiha.

"No, that's all for now. You are dismissed."

" **I'm glad to serve, Sasuke-sama.** " The creature took the man who suddenly started screaming again inside its maw, disappearing with a loud pop in another big cloud of smoke right away.

Kenji and Kura seemed to be stunned by the show they'd just witnessed. Only Hinata remained relatively calm, and her slight nervousness was more likely caused by Sasuke's presence rather than by what'd happened to Gatō.

Finally breaking the silence, the Uchiha said casually as if they were in fact relaxing, drinking cocktails in some bar and not standing in the middle of total chaos and destruction:

"Alright then. You, what was your name...?" He glanced at Kenji, frowning.

"Huh? It's Ke–"

"No matter. I understand you're from this town, aren't you? Is your home intact?"

"Y-yeah, it is, we did–"

"Good. We need some rest before we leave this place. I also wouldn't mind a cup of tea... and some food. Do you have a wife to cook?"

"Ye–yes, I–wait, stop freaking interrupting me, damn it! It's not a way to behave with someone whose guest you're going to be!" shrieked Kenji angrily, pointing at Sasuke with his finger. Apparently, his hot temper was finally taking over his fear for the Uchiha, so he was getting back to his old cocky self.

"Hn," was the only reply that came from Sasuke who strode down the road without looking at any of his companions, readjusting the cloak on his shoulders.

Hinata gave Kenji a slightly sorry glance before sighing, trotting after the Uchiha while Kura smiled reassuringly, putting her palm on the man's back and suggesting to follow them by gently pushing him forward.

The rest of their way to Tazuna's house went silently. Everyone was too overwhelmed with their emotions and feelings regarding the recent events, although each of the four was preoccupied with their own thoughts. Checking them out stealthily from time to time, by the looks of their faces Sasuke assumed that Kura was deep in calculations for the future of her business which was only natural considering what kind of person she was, always looking for more ways to make profit even out of the nastiest situations. She didn't seem to be at least slightly upset about her husband's unenviable fate, and the Uchiha had serious doubts that it was due to her being a righteous kind person that craved for justice and wanted Gatō to be punished for his crimes. If anything, it was a very good riddance for her. But Sasuke didn't care about her true motives so long as their agreement was to be executed accordingly. To him, she was nothing but a walking bag of money he could use... even though a pretty one.

On the other hand, the man who'd accompanied Hinata before the Uchiha'd showed up now looked conflicted, lost and frustrated. He was being torn apart by a vast spectrum of emotions concerning this whole situation, and apparently the guy didn't know how to deal with any of them, which was no wonder. Seldom did the people of this country deal with real ninja, the last time probably being four years ago with Zabuza and Haku.  
He was also significantly older than him and Hinata. The guy appeared to be approximately Kakashi's age, and being bossed around by a teen who could be his son was obviously not the most pleasant experience for someone like him, Sasuke understood it perfectly.

The Uchiha grinned slightly. Understanding it didn't make his reactions any less hilarious, though.

These two were too easy to read, so they didn't interest the teen at all. On the other hand, Hinata was currently an enigma he couldn't solve right away – her face wasn't giving away anything whatsoever, and that was quite unusual for a girl who'd always been so open and honest to everyone.

This was making it difficult to predict her reaction to what he was going to tell her. But, on top of that, there was an even bigger problem.

What exactly was he going to say?

It would be ridiculous at this point to deny that he'd left her alone on purpose. She wouldn't buy that unless she was an utter idiot, which she probably wasn't. And why would he lie to her anyway? He was the Uchiha Sasuke, the savior of this world and one of the most powerful beings that'd ever existed. Lying wasn't worthy of someone of his level, especially when there was little to no gain for him in doing it anyway.

But what to do, then? To tell Hinata that he'd left her on her own to put her in a highly stressful situation in order to drive her to the point of nearly breaking just to check how stable she was? It would probably be too much for someone as weak and fragile as her despite being the truth. In fact, it could negate all the positive effects of what'd happened, making her even more closed up and insecure than she'd been before. He couldn't show her that he had strong doubts in her even though he _did_ have them. It was unacceptable to let her self esteem drop any further. Not when it finally seemed to be higher than zero for once.

There had to be a balanced option, a believable half-truth. There was no rush, of course. He could spend as much time thinking on his next move as he wanted, for she was absolutely dependent on him now. He could come and go as many times as he wanted, he could be as silent or even rude as he wanted, and she'd still follow him like a puppy, of that he was absolutely sure.

The teen signed. That was truly unsightly, and surely not something he wanted to see in her. However, that was the reality he had to deal with. Besides, it also made his position basically invulnerable, for even if she'd somehow find the willpower to defy him now, it would only mean that her case wasn't as bad as it'd originally seemed. It was unlikely to happen, of course, but still possible nonetheless. In other words, whatever he did or told her now would only make her stronger unless he crossed the border of convincing her in her own hopelessness. Actually...

He frowned, turning his head slightly to glance at the girl that was walking quietly next to him. The light breeze was slightly ruffling her hair which seemed to be completely black in the moonlight. Sasuke also noticed that it'd been damaged – probably by those ninja she'd fought back in the dungeon. That, alongside the bandage that was still covering her eyes, made Hinata look a bit wild. And together with her seemingly impassive expression as well as the set of clothes she'd chosen which, to his amusement, were quite similar to his own style, it almost made her appear to be something she most definitely wasn't – a deadly criminal and a powerful ninja, far from the joke she'd been until this day. On top of all these things, she'd come to realize that she shouldn't wear her forehead protector openly, after all...

Clearly, all these changes'd occurred only thanks to his actions. Then... perhaps going in the opposite direction was the key?

Looking up to the moon, he smirked at the idea. Yes, he knew what to do now. It was a perfect decision, after all. In fact, now that he thought about it, everything'd turned out even better than he could have possibly hope for, making it almost too easy for him.

The Uchiha frowned then, noticing a man at the end of the road they were walking. His silhouette seemed somewhat familiar to Sasuke, even though his face wasn't lit by the torch that he was holding, so the Uchiha couldn't recognize him.

"Hey! Kenji, my boy! Are you guys alright? And who is there with ya? Are they injured?"

His eyes widened. He remembered this voice! It seemed like the ghosts of his past were never going to let him go.

"Yeah, old man! We're all fine. These two helped us finish the attackers off, so the town is relatively safe now." Kenji's reply sounded too loud for the desolate place, both literally and not.

 _Helped you, huh? Sure..._

"Oh! Then they are welcome to be our guests as well! Wait..." Tazuna's eyes widened as they came closer, stopping near the entrance to his house. The old man peered at Sasuke incredulously, obviously recognizing the Uchiha immediately.

"What's wrong, old man? Do you know the guy? Is he... dangerous?" asked Kenji as he noticed Tazuna's perplexed gaze, glaring at the Uchiha apprehensively.

"No, you idiot! It's–it's _him_! He's one of those guys from Konoha who saved our country from Gatō's terror years ago! Your name is Sasuke, right, my boy?" He looked extremely excited now, so the Uchiha could only sigh in defeat. There was no way to avoid it all now. He'd been busted.

Kenji gave him a long, incredulous stare before muttering:

"Well, I guess it all makes sense now if you're from Konoha... and Hina, too."

"Oh? So, Sasuke-kun is the boyfriend you've lost there, Hina-san? What a beautiful pair!"

The teen fought the urge to slap his face with his palm at the old man's babbling. For some reason, he felt a bit embarrassed now, especially looking at Hinata's rapidly reddening face.

"I'm not her boyfriend. Your name was Tazuna, wasn't it? In any case, we need a place to stay overnight. Some food wouldn't hurt, too. You're also not to tell anyone – and I mean it, _anyone_ _–_ that we're from Konoha. We're currently on a top secret mission, so revealing our origins would likely blow away our cover."

The bridge builder nodded a few times quickly, his face becoming dead serious at the Uchiha's words.

"I see... sure, sure, I understand. We won't spill a single word, I swear. Right, Kenji?" Without waiting for the man's reply, Tazuna stepped away from the doorway of his house, welcoming the newcomers. "Please, come in and be my guests. Make yourselves at home, Sasuke-san, Hina-san... and, uh–" He stopped, finally noticing the woman that was standing behind them. Tazuna slapped his nape, groaning.

"Please, forget my impossible rudeness, young lady! I was too absorbed by my nostalgic feelings, seeing Sasuke-kun again after all these years... please, be my guest as well, eh–milady...?"

"It's Kura." She smiled politely and bowed her head.

"Right, Kura-san! Please, please, get in... Tsunami will treat us with some nice late dinner."

The woman named Tsunami seemed to be very pleased to see Sasuke again as well. After finding out that the blind girl she initially disliked traveled with the Uchiha, her mood became a lot better than before as she was now placing the plates with various dishes on their humble table in the guestroom.

The whiny boy Sasuke could hardly remember was almost ecstatic to see him again. Apparently, he remembered that the Uchiha was a friend of Naruto whom he admired, and seeing as he also was a friend of Hina, the girl who'd saved him and his sister few hours ago, he was just too happy about his presence, and even his bandaged broken hand didn't spoil his mood at all. This effect was only strengthened when he found out that Sasuke almost single-handedly destroyed everyone who'd attacked them a few hours ago.

Sasuke and Hinata were mostly silent during their meal, not really listening to Kenji's colorful description of their little adventure, supported by Kura's jovial additions here and there. Each ninja was deep in their own thoughts, so they didn't notice how Tsunami's apparent displeasure switched its aim from Hinata to Kura.

Once they were finished, the family's matriarch that'd been trying to burn the brown haired woman with her eyes this whole time suddenly turned to the Hyūga girl, giving her a bit forced by still genuine smile.

"Oh, Hina-san! What's up with your hair? Did it get damaged in a fight? Please, come with me, I'll help you fix it in no time!" said Tsunami, getting up from the table.

Hinata winced a little as she sipped the warm tea, clearly not expecting such a generous offer from the woman, and then brushed her hair with her fingers, as if estimating the damage that she, it seemed, hadn't even noticed until now.

Watching the scene carefully, Sasuke had to admit that it was pretty smart of the girl who obviously could see her hair perfectly with her currently covered dōjutsu, but still acted in public as though she were really blind. Clearly, she was much more focused on her cover than before, constantly staying on guard. It was another good and inspiring sign.

Her hair, however, truly looked bad now that he bothered to check it. Apparently one of those shinobi he'd killed back in the dungeon had cut off a good part of it with a blade when they'd fought, making the left side of her once long, silky and smooth hair half as shorter than the opposite one, not to mention that it was now covered with dust, dirt and gore.

After a moment of hesitation, Hinata finally nodded, getting up as well.

"Sure. Thank you very much, it is very generous of you, Tsunami-san." The two of them moved to another room, closing the door.

Sasuke sighed, watching as they retired. Without stuttering, her voice didn't annoy him anymore. In fact, now it sounded a bit more mature a lot more pleasant with the little confidence she'd acquired. He had to get used to this new Hinata, even though he obviously approved the changes.

«Oi, Sasuke-san! Please, provide us the honor and have a drink with us!" Tazuna handed him a small glass with sake; a similar glass already was held by Kenji who was for once looking at him with slight remorse as well as high respect after what the old man'd told him about the ninja during the dinner.

He took the glass reluctantly as Tazuna got up, pledging:

"To our saviors, Sasuke-san, Hina-san and Kura-san here!" He winked at the woman who smiled warmly in return as they clinked their glasses.

The Uchiha couldn't help but wonder as he looked at them. These people seemed so genuinely happy now, even though outside of this small enclave of peace and tranquility was only hell and destruction of their homeland. Why? Didn't they care? Didn't they understand what exactly had happened to their people, to their very neighbors and friends? Didn't they understand how much time and effort would it take for everything to recover from this ordeal...?

He lowered his eyes shamefully. It was because they could endure, the sudden answer came to him. They could endure the blows that fate landed on them, and they could still keep living, treasuring the small moments of happiness and the joy of each other's company, warming up one another in this hell they called their world.

He drank the sake with a single sip.

Understanding this, how could he possibly deny the old man's humble effort to forge a bond between him and them, even if it would only exist for a very short time? Perhaps this was actually what he fought to protect, after all? Maybe this was what Naruto believed to be the way to salvation...?

He wasn't sure, but he would definitely find out in due time.

* * *

She stared at the wooden wall blankly as Tsunami's scissors were working on her ruined hair.

Ever since the moment Sasuke'd come back to save her, Hinata'd been feeling uneasy and confused to say the least.

Somehow, this man'd managed to break her picture of the world only a moment after she'd finally forced her paradigm to shift. And now she didn't know what to think and feel anymore.

Of course, she was grateful to him. Well, how could she not be? Thanks to her eyes, she saw that he was still low on chakra aside from his physical injures after the war, and in spite of these things, he really had put some effort into saving her life... again. Of course, she didn't know what exactly had happened a few days ago while everyone'd been trapped within the infinite genjutsu, but she imagined that defeating a monster like Madara couldn't be easy at all. Therefore this night was the second time when Sasuke'd done it, and he never asked for anything in return which portrayed him as a noble person contrary to all the rumors about him.

It was still nothing for him, these ninja who'd almost killed her an hour ago. Even in his current state, they were absolutely no match for him. She realized that something'd happened to both him and Naruto during the war right after the Uzumaki'd supposedly been killed by Madara as the man'd extracted the bijū out of him. She'd seen his heart stop beating, and yet he'd been revived by some mysterious means shortly after, gaining incredible power in addition to his miraculous resurrection. Had something similar happened to Sasuke? It seemed quite plausible now that she thought about it.

Shortly after the war when she saw his left eye and asked her dad about it, she'd been told that according to the ancient legends, Rinnegan was supposedly the natural final stage of Sharingan's evolution, but she couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was something off with it, just like it was with Naruto's return from the afterlife. If that was the way of obtaining Rinnegan, then why nobody aside from Sasuke, Madara and Pain had ever awakened this dōjutsu? Why had it been considered a legend or even fairy tale for centuries prior to the recent events?

There was nothing natural about these eyes, her inner voice insisted.

Furthermore, only the Uchiha Clan's descendants were capable of awakening Sharingan, it was a well known fact. Pain most certainly wasn't an Uchiha, and yet he'd had the eyes. How?

All these points were leading the girl to the conclusion that Rinnegan couldn't be simply awakened. Something had to trigger it, just like something'd triggered Naruto's dramatic power growth.

But what? What had they done to achieve it? Was it the thing that'd finally stopped the feud between the two of them...?

Before the war, she'd been sure that Sasuke loathed Naruto. The conflict between these two had always been a hot topic between the girls of her age in Konoha ever since the Uchiha'd left the village.

But now Sasuke was different, and Naruto didn't seem to find it weird at all, so it could only mean that he knew for a fact why exactly had the Uchiha changed so much. Even though most people would say he was still the same – arrogant, mean and aloof – she could see it clearly. Sasuke was different.

She hadn't know him that well in their childhood, and of course she didn't know him at all nowadays. But she was a very observant person. She'd been watching him closely ever since he'd joined them at war, because he was important to Naruto, and she hadn't wanted the feelings of the blue eyed boy to be hurt again because of the Uchiha. Even for her it wasn't very obvious, but after spending some time with him she could say that Sasuke seemed... alive, once again? He was now a bit similar to the boy she could remember in those little fragments of her memories about those distant times in the Academy, prior to the infamous Uchiha massacre.

When he'd left her last evening, she'd decided that her perception'd failed her. It hadn't really surprised her, no. How could someone like her ever be actually _sure_ in her own conclusions? And even putting that aside, she could imagine what he thought of her. Weak, ugly, boring, annoying, pathetic. She knew she'd been all of these things before, and probably still was. That's why she'd partly expected him to leave her soon. And by doing so, he'd only proved her own point one final time - nobody needed her and nobody cared for her.

She was alone in this dark, cruel world, and there was no place for weakness in her soul. Not anymore. She had to get rid of it once and for all if she wanted to survive, and she _did_ want it.

But then he'd had to spoil everything, and now she was unsure what to do and think. She certainly didn't want to become what she'd used to be – after the insight Sasuke'd finally given to her, whether he'd done it on purpose or not, but it'd made Hinata realize that she'd never felt better before. So strong. So confident. So free from herself and her fears...

However, as frightening and pathetic as it was in her own opinion, she realized that it all depended on the Uchiha's reasoning now. Truth to be told, she was afraid that he'd say that actually pitied her and that was the reason why he'd allowed her to follow him and also why he'd come back for her. Because in this case, the seed of doubt would be placed into her mind and soul again – the secret hope that there could be someone who cared for her old self would return. In this case, it would turn out that she'd never been wrong to begin with, but rather the world was. She was deadly scared that this would cause her to hide in her own small world of delusions again, this time – forever.

The girl felt the single tear flow down her cheek slowly as Tsunami was babbling something cheerfully to which she responded automatically from time to time, not really listening to the woman.

So, it was all up to Sasuke, after all.

Back in the dungeon, when the Kiri ninja'd been about to kill her, she hadn't been afraid at all. She believed in fate, and if it were her destiny to die there like that, she would have considered it her final liberation from this joke of a life. Then the Uchiha'd come to save her, and even that wasn't what she considered so important. Her life depended on him right now much more than it had down there.

Her very soul was within his grasp now... at his mercy.

"So, you and Sasuke-san are such a cute young couple... you two look like a perfect match, if you ask me. How did you meet each other?" Tsunami suddenly snatched Hinata out of her swirl of thoughts and feelings by mentioning the Uchiha's name, making the girl flinch nervously.

A bit confused by the sudden question, the Hyūga girl mumbled perplexedly:

"We've known each other since our childhood..."

"Oh, how beautiful!" She could see the woman's broad smile that seemed to be sincere. "So you've been friends for years, and he's become your boyfriend at some point? This is so romantic–!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Hinata snapped, sounding a bit too expressive.

The scissors stopped moving as the woman's expression changed, making the kunoichi regret saying that the same instant.

"Uh huh?" Tsunami hemmed, "Then what is he?" her tone dropped down to the one Hinata'd already heard earlier this night. It was filled with jealousy. Was this about Kenji...?

It was hard to believe and it seemed quite ridiculous, but the girl decided that would be unwise to provoke the woman that helped them, since it was evidently very important to her whereas Hinata didn't care at all. That woman named Kura already did this job well enough, and they certainly didn't want Tsunami to be even more angered. At least Hinata wouldn't like her to be, especially considering that there was absolutely no reason for her to be mad.

But what to tell her now that she'd already said that Sasuke wasn't her boyfriend...?

Hinata blushed, feeling her hands beginning to tremble. There was only one option left for her to get out of this awkward situation... oh, gods, she was going to regret it.

"Y-yes. He is my husband."

She could see Tsunami's features relax right away, followed by a sigh of relief.

"Husband? Oh... well, that's a bit unexpected... I'm sorry, but you two look so young, and–"

"Ninja grow up faster than other people. I assure you that we're mature enough," said Hinata calmly, using all of her remaining willpower to prevent her voice from giving away her embarrassment, "Especially him," she suddenly added, unsure why.

"O-oh!" She smiled again. "Of course, mind you, I have no doubt that you are," said the woman as she continued fixing the kunoichi's dark hair. "It's just that, oh, please, don't get me wrong... here in our country, we're not used to ninja being around. That's why pretty much everything about your kind seems weird to us, you know? Especially your lovely husband..."

 _Lovely...?_ Hinata blushed even more now, suppressing the desire to chuckle. Uchiha Sasuke was anything but lovely, that's for sure...

"But we here were sure that all the ninja of Konoha went to the Great War we've been told about, which was the reason why nobody was left to protect us. Have you two participated in that war? Is it over now?"

"Yes. We have. And yes, it is." Her response was probably too calm and cold, because Tsunami decided to not push on the matter any further, so the woman just finished the haircut silently in a minute.

"And... here, take a look! Oh... I'm sorry...!" She wanted to give Hinata a mirror so that the girl would be able to check the results of her work, but apparently she'd forgotten that the Hyūga girl was 'blind'. But considering that Tsunami'd spent quite some time and energy helping her, Hinata decided to show some gratitude and take the bandage off her face after letting out a heavy sigh. Here in this house and with these people, there was no point in hiding the fact that she could actually see everything, especially after she'd already given herself away in front of Kenji and Inari during those fights they'd witnessed.

Her white eyes widened slightly as she gazed at her reflection. Actually, she'd expected it to look ugly, but it didn't. In fact, she liked the way her hair was now quite a lot! Her new haircut was similar to one she'd had a few years ago, in a way. It was shortened by half from what she'd had a few hours ago, or a maybe bit more than that, her hair only reaching her shoulders now.

Somehow, it made her look completely different. More... wild. Free. Adult. And it also went really great with her new outfit!

Hinata smiled widely for the first time in a while.

"Thank you, Tsunami-san! It looks splendid!"

The woman gasped, putting her palms on her chest.

"Oh, so you can–oh–I–I thought... anyway, so... you like it? I'm very glad to hear that! I wasn't sure you would, I'm not a barber by any means, but..."

"I love it," replied the kunoichi, making the woman clap her hands in joy.

But then Hinata's smile faded.

It was all great and inspiring, but she still needed to talk to Sasuke, and she couldn't postpone it anymore.

"I need to have a word with–with my h-husband before we all go to sleep, if you don't mind. And, Tsunami-san... once again, thank you for everything you've done for us," she bowed to the woman in appreciation.

"Oh... mind you, you're welcome, Hina-san! It was nothing, really! I was very glad to help!" She blushed a little, waving off dismissively as Hinata turned away and walked out of the room.

Sasuke had already gone. Kenji was sleeping on the table, snoring deafeningly, and Tazuna was talking to Kura who didn't look tired at all. Inari wasn't there either – probably had gone to sleep as it was probably already nearly dawn.

"Um, Tazuna-san... could you please tell me where is Sasuke-san?"

"Oh, Hina-chan! There, h'went to the backyard, said h'needed some fresh air or somethin' like that... we've drunk quite a few glasses, y'now!" He laughed merrily, pouring himself another portion of sake as Hinata nodded thankfully and strode in the direction the old man pointed.

So Sasuke was drunk now...? It was hardly imaginable, and she didn't know what to expect of him in such state. Would they even be able to talk while he was... like this?

But she decided to try anyway. It couldn't wait any longer, otherwise there was a huge possibility that she'd lose her sanity very soon.

Walking out of the warm and welcoming house she'd already grown to like, the kunoichi stepped onto the grass that was only lit by the moon on the cloudy night sky.

Sasuke was there, sitting in the lotus posture without moving, but she could only see his back as he faced the direction opposite to the door. Quietly coming closer to him but not wanting to break the rare moment of complete peace that surrounded him, she stopped, hesitating for a few seconds before clenching her fists, deciding that there was simply no other choice anyway.

Clearing her throat, she uttered quietly:

"Sasuke-san... there, back in the town, you said that we would talk later. I–I think the time is now. There is nobody to interfere here, so..." She didn't finish the sentence, lowering her eyes timidly and waiting for his response.

He didn't reply at first, making her wonder if he was actually awake as he remained silent for a good half a minute that seemed to the girl like a whole hour in the oppressive silence of the night.

"I know," he finally said, his eyes still closed.

There was another long pause before she asked cautiously:

"So... why did you come back, Sasuke-san?"

He sighed uneasily. Was she so bothersome to him?

"I wanted to test your capabilities," he said reluctantly, not adding anything to it and thus only confusing her even more.

"Excuse me...?" she babbled, frowning. How could he test her capabilities without even being present to witness anything...? That didn't make any sense at all.

"If you died there, I wouldn't care much. That would only mean that my initial impression of you was correct and you're just a weakling who can't defend herself even from trash like those who attacked this town earlier today. I was going to come later to see how you're handling the situation on your own, without any help from me, and the outcome was supposed to be the deciding factor." He sounded absolutely serious, and there was no notable sign of being drunk in his voice at all, so it was safe to assume that he was being sincere.

The girl gasped as her eyes widened at his words.

So... she'd been right, and at the same time, she'd been wrong in her judgement of his actions. He didn't want her old self around, but he'd given her a chance to prove herself worthy of joining him. Besides, without even realizing it, he'd also given her a chance and, at the same time, a great motivation to change. To become better not for someone else but for her own sake. Because she wanted to! No... he'd made her want to! It was all thanks to him, Sasuke!

Hinata took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trembling as she was trying to suppress the desperate desire to yell victoriously and to cry in happiness at the same time.

She wasn't wrong. Fate was driving her to follow this so contradictory and mysterious man who was now the only light remaining for her in the world of darkness.

"I see," she said, unsure what to do next as she suddenly realized that there still were many unanswered important questions left. Was he satisfied? He said he'd been going to come back to check her anyway, so that alone didn't really have mean anything. So why...?

"But why did you save me? Haven't you just said that you wouldn't care if I died there?" she uttered quietly, biting her lip nervously.

That was when opened his eyes, finally raising up and turning around to meet her anxious and curious gaze.

"Because we're in the same boat."

Her heart began racing as she felt her lips curving into a happy smile. Did he mean that...?

"So... does it mean that you are satisfied with my abilities?"

"No. You're weak."

She felt something breaking inside of her the same second.

"But your will is strong. It means that you can become strong as well. If you receive the necessary training and education, that is. Nothing in this world comes out of nowhere."

For gods' sake, this man was going to drive her crazy, giving her hope one moment, destroying it right away and repeating this cycle again, and again, and again...!

"Train me, then!" she suddenly blurted, tightening her fists.

He blinked, looking into her white eyes that were filled with such incredible resolve for the first time so far as he'd seen.

"Come again?"

"Please, train me, Sasuke-san!"

He eyed her up and down impassively before finally replying in a few seconds:

"How am I supposed to do that? I've never trained anyone before, and we're the same age. We were in the same class in the academy. Doesn't it feel wrong to you?" he asked carefully, slightly narrowing his eyes at her as if expecting a certain answer.

Hinata smiled sheepishly, clasping her hands in front of her and rubbing her palms against each other.

"Well... we're not exactly the same age. You're seventeen, and I'm only sixteen." She almost giggled at the way his brow cocked skeptically at her words while his expression changed slightly to a surprised one. Apparently the Uchiha hadn't expected her to have the ability to joke, but it was actually mutual, she thought remembering the episode in the forest near Konoha the other day. "Besides, you're one of the strongest shinobi alive. You're a dōjutsu user just like me, and not only that, but you're also a ninja of incredible skill. Compared to you, I'm a weakling indeed. But I don't want to be one anymore. So, please... train me to become stronger!"

He stood still, gazing at her thoughtfully for a while, and Hinata noticed to her own amazement that for some reason she wasn't so afraid of him anymore, and waiting for his reply wasn't as intimidating this time either.

"Fine. I agree. But it won't be a walk in a park, so be prepared. You'll go through the same training I received years ago from Orochimaru. But before we come to that, I want you to answer my question, and you must be honest." She nodded eagerly, feeling herself ready for absolutely anything.

"Why do you want this?"

She frowned, biting her lip again and thinking.

And really, why? Was she doing it so that she could prove herself to someone? To her clan? To Hanabi? To father? To Naruto...? Maybe to her friends?

Or to him, Sasuke?

The girl gritted her teeth and clenched her fists vigorously.

No. None of these was correct.

"I want it for myself," she voiced her conclusion, meeting his mismatching eyes fearlessly.

But then he smirked, getting up from the ground.

"Very well. We're going to start it tomorrow while we're on our way to the next destination. Now go and have some sleep, you _will_ need to be rested."

Next destination...?

"But where are we going?" said Hinata curiously. It was only now when she was beginning to feel more less relaxed in his presence, after he'd finally accepted her for real.

"The Land of Sound. I need to meet some old friends."

* * *

Next morning, they found out that the damage caused to the town turned to be mostly material. Over eighty percents of its population had managed to survive the attack, and now Hinata and Sasuke were standing before the cheering crowd, ready to depart from the country through the Great Naruto Bridge.

"Take care, Hina-san, Sasuke-san! We'll be missing you so much, please, come back to visit us sometime later!" Inari smiled, looking at the two shinobi.

"Absolutely. You'll always be welcome in these lands, we owe you our lives." Tsunami nodded, bowing down in respect.

"Y-yeah... they are right, of course. Thank you, guys," uttered Kenji, clearly feeling a bit uncomfortable around his wife who still appeared to be mad at him.

Tazuna came close to the two ninja then, putting his hands on their shoulders.

"I don't know how to thank you, my friends. Especially you, Sasuke-san. It seems like you're our guardian angel whom gods sent to protect us. We'll never be able to repay our debt for you and Hina-san, but at least know that this is a place where you and your friends will always be able to find a refugee if you ever need it."

The Uchiha nodded in appreciation.

"Thanks, old man." He then turned to Kura who was standing a bit away from them, smiling shyly at the teen.

"You better follow our agreement. Don't make me regret sparing your life."

The woman nodded quickly a few times, her smile only widening at his warning.

"Of course, of course I will! But please, Sasuke-san...," she came close and lowered her tone so that only he and Hinata could hear her. "Make sure that Gatō never comes back."

Giving her a short nod, he turned away, walking to the bridge with Hinata following him a moment later.

"Wait a second, Sasuke-san!" Tazuna suddenly yelled, waving his hand at him.

The Uchiha stopped, turning around and looking at the old man questioningly.

"All these people who've come here today to thank you, they would like to know who is their savior... to tell this story to the next generations, you know, and all that... so, how exactly should we call you?" he asked pointedly, remembering that he shouldn't mention their allegiance to Konoha to anyone.

Hinata looked at Sasuke perplexedly as he paused, deciding what to say as he eyed the immense crowd thoughtfully for a few seconds.

And then he replied before turning away and striding forward:

"The Uchiha Clan!"


	5. Wanted!

**Chapter 5. Wanted!**

"Hokage-sama, the third ANBU search team has just returned."

"And?" came the usual relaxed reply, but somehow, it made Shizune frown in concern. There was something in the tone of the Sixth today that made her feel uneasy, even though she couldn't read him at all for she didn't know the man well enough yet.

"Nothing. Not a single witness and neither is there a trace of her in the entire Land of Fire." The woman sighed, lowering her eyes sadly.

Kakashi didn't reply right away, turning around in his chair and gazing at his village under the dark gray evening sky behind the window, his hands clasped in front of his masked face as he was deep in thought.

After a minute of silence, the former copycat shinobi finally said:

"In other words, it is safe to assume that she has either been either abducted by an S-class ninja that had been able to pass through the barrier without getting noticed... or that she's run away on her own while being very careful not to get caught or seen by anybody. However, knowing Hinata-chan, I find the second case highly unlikely, so–"

"If I may, Hokage-sama," she interrupted him, although the man didn't seem to mind, turning his head in her direction and looking at her in a silent question, "As far as I'm aware, there are only two shinobi in Konoha's current roster that could possibly pull something like that." She knew that he did realize whom she was implying, so the woman didn't feel like calling out any names... just in case.

"Yeah... I know. But that's not him."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Shizune indignantly before covering her mouth with her palm shamefully at the sudden outburst. "I apologize," she added quietly. Even though it wasn't appropriate of her, she couldn't hold back her perturbation. Of course, the boy was his former student as well as Naruto's best friend, but he was also a former international criminal who'd only been pardoned thanks to the Hokage's trust in him... which was pretty much baseless, at least in her own opinion.

"What do you think, Shizune-san? I was there when he departed. He was alone and it didn't seem like he wanted anything else but to leave as soon as possible."

"Are you sure you weren't under the Rinnegan's genjutsu?" she mumbled gloomily, feeling even more embarrassed the next moment, blaming her inability to keep her mouth shut. She'd never allow herself to say something like that around Tunade-sempai, especially knowing her overly hot temper. But then again on the contrary, the Sixth didn't seem to mind or care about her behavior at all.

"No, I'm not sure, of course. I wouldn't be able to detect it, you have a point here. However, Naruto has met him later on, not far away from Konoha. And he has confirmed that Sasuke was alone. Beside that... as far as I know, Sasuke has barely interacted with Hinata throughout the last ten years. He has absolutely no reason or motive to abduct her. Truth to be told, knowing him, I don't think he'd even want to talk to her in any circumstances. You see, Hinata-chan... she is a very kind and gentle girl, and in spite of everything – no matter great of a person she is...," he closed his eyes, sighing heavily as he tried to chose the words accurately, "Well, you should be able to grasp what I'm trying to say, Shizune-san. Frankly, she's hardly suitable for being a kunoichi. And the Sasuke I know isn't fond of people like her... the ones he considers weak. And especially so, in weak women. No...," he shook his head, gazing at his assistant confidently, "I'm positive that she's totally out of his interest."

Clenching her jaw as she had nothing constructive to reply to that, Shizune sighed in frustration and anger. Of course, she understood what the Hokage was saying, but it didn't make it sound any better. Hinata was a beautiful, wonderful person; an absolutely, amazingly kind girl with a very big and pure heart... but as much as Shizune hated to admit it, that was true. As a kunoichi, the girl was weak. Yet still, it was no reason for anyone to treat her like dirt...!

However, the Sixth was probably right. The Uchiha never payed any attention to weaklings. They _were_ dirt in his eyes. The only thing he valued in others was power. Such things as loyalty, kindness and love meant absolutely nothing to him. Sakura'd told her more than ample about it in the last few years during those countless times when Shizune'd been trying to calm the sobbing pink haired girl whose heart he'd broken mercilessly whenever they'd encountered.

"Well... then you are correct, and it's probably not him. But who, then? Surely you don't seriously believe hat she just ran away on her own...?" This idea was beyond ridiculous, especially considering _who_ the young Hyūga was. Everyone in the village adored her, and on top of that, she was the heir to her clan! Why on earth would she even want to do something like that?

"That," he started twisting his pen in this fingers, "Is a mystery we have yet to figure out. I don't want to rush to any conclusions, Shizune-san. We did enough of this in the past, and you can see where it has ultimately led us. What I find weird right now is that the Hyūga clan insist on stopping the search operation... they want to do the investigation on their own. Don't you find it strange?"

Shizune hemmed, scratching her chin thoughtfully and frowning. That certainly didn't seem all that weird to her, but even so, there was that slightest feeling of something being wrong in this case. However, one of her unofficial duties was to always be in opposition to the Hokage in order to ensure that his conclusions and decisions were as objective as possible, so she replied:

"But this had happened before this time. They treasure the Byakugan as well as everything concerning their clan secrets quite a lot, so–"

"Yes, that's what I thought initially, too, but it's not the case when it comes to Hiashi's own daughter. The last time she was abducted a few years ago, the entire country's forces were on the search duty, and he demanded even more than that to be deployed that back then."

The woman pursed her lips. She wasn't in the village back then, and now that Hatake'd told her this, Hiashi's actions certainly did seem strange to her, if not more than that.

"Do you think they might know something we don't, Hokage-sama?" she asked carefully, watching his reaction to her question. It wouldn't be wise to make such accuses aloud, even though it was a private conversation. The Hyūga had eyes everywhere in the village, and quite literally so.

He sighed, looking at the ceiling at the room.

"Perhaps... no, actually, they probably do."

"But you are not going to approve their request, am I right? Is the operation to continue, then?"

He looked at her over his shoulder with slight confusion in the black eyes.

"Obviously. It's not under their jurisdiction to decide on something so serious."

"Hokage-sama!" The door to Hokage's office snapped open. Nara Shikamaru ran inside the room, panting and holding an unsealed scroll in his hand which he immediately put on the desk. "Nami no Kuni has been attacked!"

"What?" Both Kakashi and Shizune turned to face the jōnin who looked unusually worried at the moment. And it was way too unlike him to look so freaked out... Kakashi knew the teen well enough to say so. That could only mean that there was something more to this event, something that'd made the boy so thrilled. Something extraordinary...

"Who are the attackers? And what exactly happened there?"

Shikamaru swallowed heavily, meeting the collected gaze of the Sixth and blurting:

"By some thugs, apparently. The town itself has nearly been destroyed. But by time the appointed squad has returned to their country, they found the citizens repairing the damage caused by the attack – basically, rebuilding the whole settlement."

"So, I suppose it's all good, then? Well, relatively... I guess we'll have to provide financial support. Tough luck, we're pretty low on resources nowadays," Hatake still couldn't quite grasp the reason behind such a reaction coming from Shikamaru. Surely, things like that always happened in their world from time to time... then why...?

"You could say so. But it's not the point. In fact, they've been saved. By a shinobi... or rather a group of ninja, to be more accurate."

Now that was interesting. None of the Leaf's ninja was supposed to be in the Land of Waves before Kakashi himself had reassigned the guard squad the other day, ordering them to return back to their disposition previous to the war. Then it had to be someone else. But... who?

"Judging by your expression, you're already know who were they, Shikamaru-kun?" asked the Hokage, to which the teen nodded.

"Yeah... We've received a message from the squad's commander. People of the town seem to be grateful to Konoha... or not exactly to us, I'm not quite sure."

"Explain," demanded the gray haired man. Now it was becoming even more intriguing.

"Every single one of them claims that they were saved by the Uchiha Clan."

The absolute silence fell upon the Hokage's office.

Now Kakashi finally understood Shikamaru's feelings about these news. The Uchiha Clan... it had to be Sasuke, without a doubt. It could only mean that he really intended to pay for his past sins, just like Naruto'd assumed he did when their teammate had left the village again... It was truly relieving to find out that they turned to be correct in their expectations of the Uchiha. His former student finally had taken the right path. It made Hatake feel true happiness and serenity at long last. For once in his life the gray haired man hadn't failed.

But then again... the _clan_...?

"So, I take it he wasn't alone? Did some of those people tell who'd assisted him?"

Shikamaru smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, they did. Once again, all of them say the same, which I think is rather unusual considering the rumor mill and all that. They state that he was with a woman, approximately his age; dark haired, with her eyes covered with some tissue, so they assumed that she was blind. However, she fought the invaders successfully alongside Sasuke. She was also dressed quite similarly to him."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he turned his head to Shizune who seemed to be confused and shocked by the report. He was a bit afraid to see something like a grim, triumphant "I told you so!" in her eyes, but it seems that, just like him, his assistant could see the deeper and, at the same time, even more confusing meaning of the news.

If the girl was, in fact, Hinata – and it _had_ to be her, because who else could fight normally while being blindfolded if not a Byakugan user? – then there were only two possible options.

The first one was that she'd followed Sasuke willingly. In this case, she wasn't his captive and that's why she'd helped him in Nami no Kuni. However, there were also too many suspicious things about this version which he couldn't explain.  
Why would she, of all people, want to leave the village?  
Why hadn't she told anyone about her decision?  
Why had she followed Sasuke in whom she'd never been interested to begin with (at least as far as Hatake knew)?  
And finally, why on earth would she associate herself with the Uchiha Clan, especially being the heir to the Hyūga...?

And if it was the second one, then Sasuke'd used his genjutsu to put her under control, and in these case there was also a bunch of serious questions.  
Why her, exactly? She certainly wasn't someone who could possibly be an interest of his.  
If he decided to leave the village and do something hideous again, why would he lie to them? It wasn't in his nature at all. Furthermore, Kakashi's judgement over Sasuke was based on his usual absolute honesty and bluntness – the Uchiha never bothered to lie to anyone, probably considering it too low for his pride. If anything, he was almost equally as straightforward whenever it came down to expressing his opinions and decisions as Naruto was. After all, a secretive and sneaky person doesn't simply announce that he's going to go and kill the Gokage in front of those who _could_ and most definitely _would_ try to stop him.

And beside these two versions, there was also this suspicious behavior of the Hyūga clan's elders... something there wasn't quite right. The Sixth was positive that he was missing something there, some crucial link that'd explain everything.

But what could it possibly be?

And aside from that, what were they supposed to do now anyway? He couldn't expect everyone to just believe his judgement on Sasuke. No one in the whole village, and perhaps even in the entire world aside from him, Naruto and Sakura truly knew what kind of person Sasuke was. And they most probably were sure that he was, in fact, capable of lying considering that he'd been labeled a traitor before.

His former student was evil in their eyes, and nobody trusted the Uchiha. Nobody'd care enough to think deeper. Their judgement would be quick should they find out what'd happened. He could see right there in his very office how easily Shizune came to the second option, her expression becoming frightened as she realized what Shikamaru's words really meant.

Hatake closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. He had absolutely no chance to explain to everyone why was he going to stick to the first option. They'd never listen to him, which was why he was going to use the power of his authority instead of hollow talks.

"Listen to me very carefully, both of you. Shikamru, tell me, who aside from you has seen this scroll's contents?"

The boy shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at the Sixth curiously.

"Nobody, if you count out the squad's commander. But I doubt that he'd be able to figure it out. At least not the Hinata part, that's for sure."

Kakashi smiled behind his mask and nodded, satisfied with the Nara's reply.

"Good. But even so, send my order to him as well as his soldiers. They are to keep this information top secret. The punishment for spilling a word on the matter will be a death sentence. And the two of you are to consider this information an S-class secret as well. Nobody is allowed to find out about it. Is is clear?"

"B-but, Hokage-sama...!"

"I know what you're thinking, Shizune. But you're wrong. Don't be so hasty to judge someone you don't know. I'm going to send Sasuke a message with the hawk he left here for an emergency situation... Too bad, the time to use it has come so fast." He took a blank paper from the stack and started writing, carefully choosing the words.

 _Sasuke!_

 _Our intelligence has provided us with the information regarding the recent events in Nami no Kuni. As the Hokage, I'm grateful for what you've done there, thank you for the splendid job._

 _However, after receiving this message, you should have already realized why I'm sending it now._  
 _  
Whatever you are up to, your cover wasn't good enough. Our ninja that arrived to the town right after your departure asked the citizens who saved them, and they stated that it was the Uchiha Clan. However, they also gave a description of the two of you, and it's not hard enough to figure out that your female accomplice is no one else but Hyūga Hinata._

 _You've sided with Konoha again, and I do trust you, believe me. However, most people in the village don't, at least not yet. And while I know that you wouldn't do something like this, those who've found out what'd happened in Nami no Kuni and who don't know you personally, they think you've abducted Hinata and control her with the power of your eyes. I don't know why did she join you, but I think you need tell me what happened. As your former teacher, teammate and the Hokage, I must know everything about it. Even if it's Hinata's secret, only I can ensure the safety of your journey right now. The situation is extremely serious, I'm afraid you might be underestimating the danger. Like I'd told before you left, I won't be able to hold the storm should the news break out. Nobody'd even bother to listen, and you'd be labeled a nukenin again._

 _Hopefully, you will send me a reply as soon as possible._

 _Please, Sasuke. I repeat, this is a very serious issue._

 _The Sixth Hokage,_

 _Hatake Kakashi.  
_

Taking a long and careful look at the paper one last time as he didn't want it to give a threatening impression to the Uchiha when he would get to read his letter, the man finally sealed the scroll and wrapped it around the leg of Sasuke's hawk.

"That's it. Now, we'll wait for his reply before making any decisions on what to do next. Until then, you need to follow my orders and be quiet about the news. I feel that there is something bigger behind all this, we just can't see it yet. Hopefully Sasuke's reply will be able to give us some clue.

Nara nodded, frowning at the letter and narrowing his eyes.

"I can't help but wonder why Hinata decided to follow _him_ of all people, though. I'm afraid you are correct, Hokage-sama. Something dramatic must have happened to make her do something like this, and I think it probably has something to do with the Hyūga clan's elders."

Shizune gasped, getting up from her table and staring at the Nara incredulously.

"What are you saying, Shikamaru-kun? The Uchiha must've put Hinata into his genjutsu, it should be obvious to you, of all people, and–!"

The shinobi shook his head doubtfully, interrupting the woman, to which Kakashi smiled smugly under his mask. Now that the Nara'd come to the same conclusion as him, the gray haired ninja was sure that he'd made a right decision.

"Not really, Shizune-san... I don't think so. For all I know, in spite of being many unlikable things, Sasuke is pretty far from being an idiot. I have a very strong doubt that he'd pull something as reckless and stupid for whatever reason there could be for him to do it, albeit personally I don't see any possible motive on his part whatsoever. Even if it were some really complex plan of his – and he'd have no reason to risk his cover by protecting Nami no Kuni in this case – it'd be way too flawed for someone of his level, for it's far too easy to see through. Even though I don't really like him at all, I'm absolutely sure that he's a lot smarter than that. Not to mention that it would be totally out of his character to try to be sneaky is she really were his target, especially considering how powerful he's become."

"Yes, but–!"

"What I'm trying to say is that logically, as of now, the only possible obstacle on his way of doing whatever the hell he wants is Naruto. Again, if we take into consideration what kind of person Sasuke is... even if he can't defeat Naruto in a fair fight (of which we can't be sure), the idiot still trusts him with his life. Therefore Sasuke could've simply rigged his death by, let's say, poisoning him or assassinating Naruto while he's sleeping. There would be absolutely no one to stop him then. If you still believe that Sasuke is the one who made Hinata leave the village, kindly tell me what prevented him from choosing the easiest way like he always does?"

Shizune looked away, frowning in confusion and pursing her lips while Kakashi was nodding to Shikamaru's analyses approvingly. Truth to be told, the man wasn't sure if he'd be able to connect all the dots so accurately by himself. Well... like father, like son. Shikaku could be really proud of his boy...

"And even if he wanted her but didn't fancy the idea of killing Naruto at the same time, he could've easily come up with a smarter plan. For example, he could've waited for an opportunity to capture her while she'd be away from the village on some mission. This way, he'd never be suspected, especially considering that by that time, we'd think that he's already far away from Konoha. Given that there was literally no connection between the two of them in the past, that would be a perfect tactic, don't you think so?" The Nara met her perplexed gaze, giving the older kunoichi a reassuring smile. "Whenever a conclusion seems to be absolutely obvious to you, Shizune-san, I advise you to always think twice, because the statistics say that an initial conclusion can very well be wrong. When it comes to people like Sasuke, things are never simple. He wasn't called a genius for nothing."

The Sixth had to admit, he hadn't expected Shikamaru to have such a high opinion on Sasuke. But then again, the Nara was probably the smartest person in their village nowadays. If he wouldn't be able to brush away the stereotypes and to look deeper into things, then who on earth would?

"He's right, Shizune-san. That's why I believe we should wait for Sasuke's response before we make a move. Until then, we're to wait and pretend that we know nothing. Shikamaru, I want you to choose the best ANBU spy squad available for me to put on the constant watch duty over the Hyūga clan. We need to gather as much information about whatever they are plotting nowadays as possible. Shizune-san," he turned to the woman who seemed frustrated and lost and gave her a warm eye smile. "Please, trust your Hokage. I know that I'm quite new to this seat, but I'm still asking you to do it. It is necessary for the village and for all of us, too. If even my closest people will doubt my decisions and reasoning, then how can I rule this village at all?"

She sighed in defeat, bowing down respectfully.

"You're right... I will do as you say from now on. I'm sorry, Hokage-sama."

* * *

It was a dull and gloomy evening in the Hidden Village of the Leaf, both metaphorically and literally. Of course, all the active ninja on duty knew that Hyūga Hinata'd been missing for almost two weeks by now. Not many of them really cared about it, though. Sure, Hinata was known as a very nice girl, but aside from her former classmates and a few of her clansmen nobody considered it a big deal as people didn't view her as someone truly relevant. Ninja died here and there in their world at all times, that's how things worked. Therefore whatever'd happened to her wasn't all that significant in their eyes.

After all, just one girl made no real difference, especially after the disaster they'd all gone through. The Infinite Tsukuyomi had left quite a few scars that weren't fast to heal and well, most people nowadays had far more important things to worry about. Nobody could judge them for that... almost.

Nobody aside from Uzumaki Naruto who was currently sitting at Ichiraku's, eating the second bowl of his favorite ramen this day but doing it unusually slowly and quite reluctantly.

The indifference of people when it came to Hinata's disappearance made the hero of Konoha feel frustrated and almost infuriated. Of course, he knew that the Hokage was doing everything in his power to find her, but somehow, it seemed to him that Kakashi-sensei could do more if he really wanted to find her.

Even though Naruto was one of those who'd saved the world and the hero of the war, the so-called 'wiser elders' still kept him in the dark about whatever was happening. But wasn't he already mature enough to know? Hadn't he proven himself trustworthy enough to them? Gaara, who was his age, had already become a bloody Kage! Why nobody told him anything again, just like they'd done prior to the war? He didn't understand it!

The boy clenched his fists, putting the chopsticks away and taking a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm down.

Perhaps Sasuke was right to leave the village, after all? What if he, Naruto, was the one who'd been wrong about Konoha all along? Nothing seemed to at least begin to change yet, even though he'd basically united the world... even so, he was still but a pawn in his seniors' hands. And Hinata...

He gritted his teeth and groaned.

What if Hinata'd somehow realized it, too? Maybe that's why she was gone? They didn't seem to put enough effort in searching her – of this, the blond was absolutely sure. Perhaps the old farts actually knew already that she'd left on her own and just didn't want to announce it yet for whatever stupid ass reason they could possibly have come up with? Now that he thought about it, they hadn't really tried hard to catch Sasuke back when he'd left the village years ago... and although the Uzumaki couldn't explain it logically, both these situations gave quite similar feelings to him.

But if things were the way he assumed, then he, Naruto, had failed another friend. Right after he'd finally managed to save Sasuke...

Fucking great.

 ** _Stop rambling, Naruto... you don't know anything for sure yet. Don't allow your doubts and fears to cloud your silly head!_**

 _Yeah, I know, Kurama... but what am I supposed to do now? Things are easy when you have an enemy to fight who's facing you_ _–_ _it's all just about who's going to win. But now that I have nobody to fight, I don't know what to think and do... it's all so messy and stupid...!_

 ** _You're indeed stupid if you didn't expect it. Peace is always more complicated than war. But you're the one who brought this peace, and you worked damn hard to make it real. Now you must maintain it if you don't want them to turn everything upside down. Or were you foolish enough to think that it would remain forever the way it'd been the day Kaguya was sealed? Dumb ass!_**

Naruto grimaced, looking up at the sky. He knew that Kurama was right. He'd never thought about how to deal with things once the Fourth Great Ninja War would be over, and he'd been naive enough to assume that everyone would've been satisfied with what they'd had by the end of the conflict. At least he, Naruto, didn't want anything else.

But people were quick to forget their past, and it seemed that only the future interested most of them. The Uzumaki didn't agree with Sasuke's methods at all but, apparently, his friend'd been right about at least one thing – this current system was corrupted to no end. It needed desperately to be changed, and nobody seemed to even intend to change anything nowadays. They were too tired of fighting and simply wanted their usual life back, no matter how flawed it was. If things were to remain this way...  
Then another Madara would appear soon. And Naruto even knew his name. Even though Ashura and Indra had a truce for now at long last, Indra was still alive and well. And he was waiting. Naruto'd promised him that he'd change the world without violence. And he couldn't break this promise no matter what. That was his ninja way, after all.

Indra... no, _Sasuke_ had put his trust in him. Naruto wouldn't fail his friend whom he considered his brother.

Never again.

Except... how could he make it if they weren't allowing him to do anything at all...?

 _ **You must deal with it for now. Until you become the Hokage, you probably won't be able to do anything, so accept it for a fact, kit. And to become the Hokage, you'll need to go through this shitty system to get on the very top of the hill. There is no other way. Well, there is one, but you and your predecessors declined it.**_

Naruto frowned, taking another piece of meat from his bowl and staring at it as if he were studying it without any real interest.

 _I guess you're right... but what if I break this promise? What if I fail him?_

 ** _And since when a failure is an option for you? Stop whining and collect yourself! Or else I'll have to call for Sasuke to beat some sense into your stupid head!_**

For the first time that day, the blond smiled weakly. His tailed mate was right, as always. He'd allowed these depressing thoughts to overwhelm him, and that was wrong.

"Ayame-chan, I'd like another one!"

"Sure, Naruto-kun! Just a minute!" The always friendly and optimistic young woman, Teuchi's daughter, gave him a wide cheerful smile before turning to her desk to start cooking for him. There weren't any other clients at the moment, which wasn't any surprising considering the weather.

Ichiraku Ramen'd always been like this to him. Whenever it was so depressing outside, sitting here in this welcoming and warm place he always felt better, even right now despite all the bad things that happened around including the heavy rain outside that was dripping from the dark gray clouds that were covering sun completely.

"Naruto! Is that you?! Oh, who else could it be," the familiar voice called for him, making his smile even wider this time. Turning his head he noticed Sakura who walked under the eatery's roof, holding the red umbrella that was covering her from the downpour.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! What's up?"

She sighed and pursed her lips, watching the boy critically as he put another portion of hot noodles in his mouth. He could swear that he almost heard her current thought – _the blond idiot still has no sense of tact whatsoever..._ Or something among these lines. But that was the way Naruto'd always been, and he didn't want to pretend being someone else for whatever reason no matter who it was in front of him.

"Not much... I've just managed to get out of the hospital. We didn't do anything interesting there, because most missions don't involve receiving heavy injuries nowadays... So, I just chatted with Tsunade-sama the whole day. Well, not counting the paperwork." She sat down the seat to his left, putting the umbrella away. "I haven't seen you in a few days... what have you been up to?" asked the pink haired girl, looking at him curiously.

The boy scratched his nape, smiling awkwardly.

"O-oh! Sorry 'bout that, Sakura-chan! I was, eh, a bit busy... well..." He flinched seeing as his jade eyed teammate frowned. "I was helping Konohamaru with his training! Y'know, he's taking it all very serious now, after the war... quite unlike I did when I was his age, eh..."

"No wonder. He's much smarter than you, loudmouth," she smiled, turning away to make an order.

 ** _That was a close one. Surely you don't plan on telling her..._**

"By the way, Sakura-chan, have you heard anything 'bout Hinata-chan? Any news maybe?"

 _ **...about your concern for another girl that happens to be known for being head over heels–oh, well... now you're doomed, you retard. I'm out.**_

 _Shit! I didn't think about it this way...! Kurama...? Kurama...!_

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, studying her teammate's face. Of course, she was aware that Naruto'd never felt _that_ way about Hinata. She also knew that he cared about his friends dearly, all of them. Yet still, Naruto could feel that his question'd made something change inside of her, causing Sakura to feel great discomfort all of sudden.

Was she... was she _jealous_?

"No... nothing, really. You should better ask Kakashi-sensei. If someone gets any news on the mater, that would be him for sure." Her tone was much less cheerful now than before.

Naruto felt bad now, blaming himself for hurting her feelings. Kurama was right – he was an idiot.

"N-nah, I'm more interested in you right now, Sakura-chan!"

The girl's cheeks reddened slightly as she lowered her eyes timidly.

"I'm glad to hear that, but make no mistake, I'm very worried about Hinata-san as well. I hadn't even seen her at the fest that night before she disappeared... had you?"

Naruto's face paled. He didn't reply right away, looking at his bowl for a few seconds before muttering:

"Oh, yeah... we talked a bit, I think..." The jinchūriki frowned as if he suddenly remembered something disturbing, which made Sakura look worried.

"And what did you say to her?" she asked quietly, carefully watching his reaction. Naruto'd always been very sincere and quite easy to read, much unlike Sasuke. But his eyes didn't give away anything suspicious at the moment; in fact, he looked simply confused right now.

"Not much, I think. We talked about some stuff, I don't remember what exactly what it was... I guess... nothing interesting...?" He scratched his nap wonderingly, looking up.

But if Naruto said that there was nothing interesting _to him_ , it surely didn't mean that there _hadn't_ been anything interesting, of that Sakura was absolutely certain knowing him as long as she did.

"And Hinata-san... wasn't her behavior any strange back then? Did you notice something suspicious maybe?" asked the kunoichi, looking suavely right into his blue eyes. But, to her surprise, Naruto simply shrugged and grabbed his bowl again, returning to his meal.

"Not really–she was just–you know–Hinata-chan?" the ninja smiled clumsily as he chewed the noodles, unsure why Sakura'd decided to interrogate him all of sudden. She couldn't possibly want to blame _him_ for Hinata's disappearance, could she...?

The medical-nin sighed in defeat as Ayame placed her own portion of ramen in front of her. Even if Naruto'd made something stupid that night, it seemed that there was no way to get it out of him now considering that he likely didn't even realize what he'd done... whatever it was.

"Fine... let's eat now and then go somewhere, then? I'm bored," said the kunoichi, giving him a reassuring smile.

It worked as intended – the jinchūriki seemed to forget about the previous part of their conversation the same second.

"Sure, Sakura-chan! Wherever you want!"

* * *

Hyūga Hiashi was anything but a soft man and neither was he kind nor forgiving. His life was simple, at least to some degree – everything he did was for the sake of his clan, which was exactly how the clan's head was supposed to be according to his late father's teaching. It was also the way Hiashi nowadays taught his own younger daughter, the clan's current heiress Hanabi. He'd tried to make his older daughter Hinata understand it too, but now the man could see that he'd utterly failed at that, which was the subject of his thought pretty often lately.

It'd been two weeks since their fateful speech that night when he'd found Hinata in her room, crying for some reason he hadn't known and neither had he really been any interested to find out. Back then, he hadn't considered it something worthy of his attention, something that could possibly be serious. Hinata wasn't a toughie to say the least, so the man was fully aware that even insignificant little things could make her overreact from time to time. And considering how strong was her attachment to her deceased cousin Neji, it'd only been natural to find her in such condition shortly after his nephew's death.

Of course, Hiashi'd realized that the news he'd brought for her that night couldn't have made her grief any better, because she couldn't possibly be fine with the idea of receiving the same seal Neji'd had since his childhood which, as far as the head of the clan was aware, had always bothered her quite a lot as well as the whole branch system.

Oh, the irony...

He'd had very little choice on the matter as it wasn't entirely his decision, but even so, he certainly hadn't felt like trying to make his daughter feel better. The girl'd let him down so many times that he'd found himself starting to feel strong despise for his own daughter.

She was weak. She never listened. She always failed at everything...

Back in the years, he'd constantly cursed fate for making Neji his nephew and not his son. The boy'd been perfect in so many ways, more than suitable for becoming a glorious head of their clan... just like Fugaku's son, the sole Uchiha survivor. Oh, how much would Hiashi pay to have an offspring similar to these two... Even though many Konoha's council members had voted for Uchiha Sasuke's execution, Hiashi'd been against the ridiculous idea, and he still remained as such.

To him, the boy was the prime example of a perfect future leader. Neji'd had his weak spots which'd ultimately led him to his demise, but the Uchiha didn't. That alone made the elders' desire to get rid of such a valuable asset incredibly foolish in Hiashi's eyes, emanating from their fear of him and not from common sense.  
Not to mention that in secret, he was looking forward to witness the Uchiha clan's rebirth under the boy's command. One could wonder why did the man look at it this bizarre way considering that Uchiha'd never been on exactly friendly terms with Hyūga, but in Hiashi's opinion, most people were just too short sighted to see the opportunities he saw – in a way, the one they called the avenger and the betrayer was like a blank list of paper. Unlike many generations of his ancestors, he was pure. He knew nothing about the history of their families, and so he could become the Hyūga greatest ally and weapon, and provided with the necessary time and trickery... who knew, he could even become the Hokage one day.

However, unfortunately and ironically, Hiashi's own only hope for his clan had died at war, protecting his foolish failure of a daughter and the jinchūriki who'd never needed their protection to begin with. And this was giving the man even more reason to despise Hinata. She was the one who'd poisoned the entire clan with her weakness she called kindness... It was beyond ludicrous and just too shameful.

Why hadn't it ended up the opposite way? Why hadn't she died protecting Neji instead...?

Hiashi didn't feel any sympathy for his older daughter whatsoever. If anything, the only thing he regretted now was that she'd been able to run away before he would've put the seal on her. And now their whole clan as well as the Hokage had to waste their time and resources looking for her all across the country in order to protect his clan's secrets from the possible consequences of her idiocy.

He sighed, shaking his head.

Such a waste... always making their lives more complicated than it'd ever been necessary, she'd done absolutely nothing useful to them all through her own not so long life. And even when he'd thought that he was finally done with her, she'd still managed to only bring even more trouble to them...

Contrary to the Hokage's belief, Hiashi was absolutely sure that she hadn't been abducted but rather had run away. That was partly the reason why he tried not to take any valuable resources from the village to find her – Hinata's foolishness wasn't supposed to harm other people's interests any more than it'd already done. It was the sacred duty of their glorious clan to handle this issue on their own. They weren't called the strongest in Konoha for nothing... Surely, they could deal with her on their own.

After all, she was nothing but a failure...

"Hiashi-sama."

The clan's head turned around to face the young member of the Branch House who'd apparently come to him to report some news. He was a decent boy with quite some skill; Hiashi hadn't noticed his appearance.

"Speak up."

"The fifth ANBU search team has just reported to Hokage-sama."

"And?"

"They found nothing. According to Sixth's words, there's not a single trace of Hinata-sama in the whole Land of Fire and neither is there anything in the Land of Waves."

Hiashi clenched the wooden railing of his residences's balcony, suppressing the desire to groan in irritation. So, she could be good at least at hiding, after all... ironically, even in these rare moments of her success she still managed to be a pain to him.

"Understood. You are dismissed." The young man bowed before turning away and leaving the room.

The clan's head closed his eyes and covered his face with his palms.

He had absolutely no idea where she could've gone. And it was quite an enigma for him, because she'd never been smart... even if he'd underestimated her by a chance, the man would never believe that she was actually good enough to outplay the entire Konoha. And what was she thinking anyway? What would her chances to hide be when she got labeled a nukenin? When she became wanted in every major country of their world?

But then again, it was too unlike her. Either had he underestimated Hinata and she was actually smarter than he'd originally believed her to be by far, or...!

He flinched, opening his eyes wide at the sudden realization and fear.

Or somebody'd helped her to escape and had covered her, too. But she'd never had any contacts outside the village, of this he was certain. Damn, she'd barely talked to anybody aside from the members of her clan throughout her life. Was it possible that there was an outsider intelligent and powerful enough to fool them all?

Could it... could it actually be _him_? The one _they_ had warned him about years ago, back when she was just a child? And even so... what were his intentions, then?

To Hiashi's belief, the only two things Hinata was capable of doing were either becoming a free dōjutsu donor or giving birth to a child with their kekkei genkai. Therefore it had to be one of these options. And in any case, they needed to find her as soon as possible... and eliminate. Yes... although the Hokage didn't have to know about this small detail of his plan, she still needed to die, especially if his dreadful assumption was correct.

For the sake of their clan, of Konoha, of everyone... he would end her life on his own.

But it seemed that she was just a sheep anyway. Being useless trash here in Konoha, she was still a desirable treasure for a foreigner. The real problem would be finding and dealing with the one who'd planned all this. The one who apparently had her now, and Hiashi could only hope that it wasn't too late just yet.

His ancestors wouldn't forgive it... he'd become the biggest disgrace to the Hyūga in decades, if not centuries. In other words, it was absolutely not an option for Hiashi.

That's why in a few minutes, walking out of his big, spacious yet rather ascetic room, he went down the wooden stairs and went out of the residence, ignoring the slowly intensifying rain. He needed to attend the upcoming Hyūga clan's council board to share the news as well as to make a decision on what to do now that it'd become obvious that his daughter would most likely not be found with the forces they'd assigned for this job.

Entering the big hall on the second floor of the district's main building, he walked to his seat at the head of the broad wooden table. All the murmurs and talks had stopped the moment his feet crossed the doorway, and now everyone was staring at him expectantly.

The man cleared his throat before saying:

"Greetings, my fellow clansmen. We have come here to discuss the latest news regarding my daughter's disappearance. It shall not take much time, for I have already made the decision that the majority of you, I have no doubt, will support. Since it has become obvious that Hinata had run away from the village by her own free will, thus impertinently denying _our_ will, I hereby proclaim that our highest priority right now is to find and capture her at all coasts. Her eyes and body must not end up in the wrong hands no matter what. I would prefer capturing her alive, but every search teams that is and will be assigned are allowed to eliminate any threat to our clan on its spot. Therefore I want to double the amount of the Hyūga clan's ninja that are going to be on this duty. Are there any objections?"

There wasn't a single one, and it was hardly surprising – those who were present in the hall were the Main House's members who shared his ideology for the most part of it and would never go against his will. Hiashi was a respected leader, and he feared terribly to lose this status and authority. Not because of his pride (although it was a huge factor as well), but rather because it would put incredible shame to his late father's name, as well as to his whole lineage... he would better die than allow this to happen.

The clan's head nodded in satisfaction.

"Then it's settled. You have your orders, begin executing them right away."

"Yes, Hiashi-sama!" came the chorus of monotonous voices.

* * *

The next morning, Kakashi and Shizune were in the Hokage's office, doing the usual boring paperwork. They were mostly silent, for both of them felt quite nervous as they were, in fact, secretly waiting or rather wanting the one and same thing to happen as soon as possible, preferably any second now, although they weren't even sure if it was ever going to happen at all. At least the kunoichi didn't seem to be certain at all – Kakashi'd noticed that she was glancing at the window every now and then, working way more slowly than usual.

They'd spent about five hours like that by the moment when his assistant suddenly flinched as she finally noticed something that caught her interest. The same little hawk Kakashi'd sent away with the letter yesterday had returned, patiently waiting now for them to let him in. A small scroll was attached to his right leg, and it clearly looked different from the one the Hokage'd used!

"Hokage-sama, it's–!" He turned his head to the window and smiled. Of course, he'd believed that Sasuke would send his reply and some point in any case, but he still hadn't expected it to happen so soon. It was another testament to the Uchiha's care for his village and his bonds... although, well, perhaps the fact that he probably hadn't gone too far away from Konoha yet could have something to do with the fast reply. Or rather... _they_ hadn't?

Kakashi opened the window hastily, letting the bird fly directly onto his shoulder, stretching its leg for him to retrieve the message. Carefully taking the scroll, the Hokage unrolled the paper, looking at the sloppy lines.

 _Not really surprised that she got spotted so soon, but I'll still make things clear for you._

 _I couldn't care less about the Hyūga. However, shortly after I'd departed from the village, she approached me on the road and asked me to let her tag along. I found the idea pretty stupid, so I decided to use my left eye's power on her._ _By doing so, I've managed to retrieve some parts of her memories of the last few days and, as far as I could see it in those fragments, quite a few nasty things'd happened to her before she decided to leave the village, and these things had ultimately caused her to make this decision. I just happened to be on her way as she was running away, that's all._

 _Now, to the important part. She wouldn't have left Konoha if not for her father – his actions'd served as the trigger. She's been banished from the Main House of their clan, and he told her that he was going to put that special seal they use to control their slaves' branch on her. I'm not really familiar with their customs and neither am I interested in them anyway, so you should know better than me how it's usually done.  
Regardless, she didn't want to get the seal, and that's why she left. In my opinion, that's totally understandable, which was why I allowed her to follow me. Besides, she didn't have anywhere else to go, and at her current level, she'd get herself killed very soon if not for my little guidance._

 _That leads us to the final part. Don't ask me how, but she has managed to convince me to start training her. We won't be coming back to the village until it's all settled between her and her clan, so I'll prepare her for the possible clash with them. I guarantee that she'll be able to stand up for herself by the time I'm done with her. Besides, I have some vague idea how we could possibly prevent the mess, but it's too far fetched to share it just yet. I'll contact you again at some point so that we can think it through together._

 _I also promise to return her in one piece, for I guess this is your main concern at the moment._

 _P.S. I advise you not to tell anyone about this, especially the dobe. Something happened between him and her that was also a part of the reason behind her decision to leave. I'm not sure what exactly was that, and not that I care at all, but I believe that it's better for him to stay oblivious so that he doesn't do anything dumb to ruin her chance to come back._

 _Make sure to contact me if something worthy of my attention happens or if the village needs my urgent help. I'll try to come back as soon as possible, but you better don't summon me unless it's really absolutely necessary._

 _Sasuke.  
_

The Sixth smiled happily under his mask.

His feelings hadn't failed him, after all. Sasuke hadn't betrayed them, and he still wanted to protect Konoha. He was actually planning to return in the future, too.

But then the man frowned, realizing what exactly the Uchiha was saying in his message.

For the Hyūga clan to do something like this... it wasn't all that surprising, of course. Hiashi was the head of his clan as well as a very harsh man, so naturally, such decisions were for him to make. And considering that similar things'd been happening for centuries by now, there was hardly anything Kakashi'd be able to do about Hinata's tragic destiny if not for her reckless decision to become a rogue. And as much as he loathed her father personally as well as their clan's barbaric traditions, the Sixth knew that if not for Sasuke's involvement in this story, it would still be possible to hush up the issue for the sake of peace. To bring the girl back and to throw her into the maw of this monster. After all, sacrificing one kunoichi to save the lives of many was among the decisions a Hokage was supposed to be ready to make, so Kakashi would've done it.

However, the fact that the Uchiha'd taken the girl under his wing was making the situation very complicated to say the least, and it was most certainly something Kakashi needed to take care of as soon as possible. It was needless to think about all the possible consequences which might follow should the Hyūga find out about Hiashi's daughter hobnobbing with Sasuke. Considering his former student's reputation, they'd certainly insist on their execution in this case, and that would be absolutely unacceptable simply because in this case, Naruto would take his friends' side without a doubt. And even all the five nations united wouldn't stand a chance against him and Sasuke together, let alone Konohagakure on its own.

On top of that, Sasuke'd stated that they were going to come back, and that'd be impossible while Hiashi was still alive and within the village. Therefore whatever idea the last Uchiha currently had on his mind, knowing him, it was almost safe to assume that any plan of his would likely involve the death of Hiashi. And Kakashi didn't want another coup d'etat in Konoha, especially not after he'd just become the Hokage. But trying to mess with the Hyūga now would most likely lead to this anyway... and if he betrayed Sasuke, the consequences would probably be even worse, not to mention that the man considered this option absolutely unacceptable for himself.

He sighed, handing the paper to his assistant before stretching in his chair tiredly.

"Here, Shizune-san... please, read it thoroughly. I believe it will make you calm down a little bit. And when you're finished, kindly summon Shikamaru-kun. We have quite a few things to discuss... the three of us, that is," he took a sip of the cold green tea, raising his gaze to the ceiling.

They needed to come up with an impossibly good and flawless plan in order to avoid another bloodshed within the walls of Konoha. He had no doubt that Sasuke'd prepare Hinata well enough, but a fight'd be the worst possible outcome of this growing crisis. If they didn't get caught anytime soon, then by the time of their return, the girl'd probably be able to face her entire clan on her own, knowing the Uchiha and presuming the methods of training. But did they really want her to become another Itachi now that the war'd just ended and everyone was treasuring the precious peace they'd been craving for so long?

The answer was obvious. Whatever Sasuke would come up with, Kakashi couldn't afford counting on that blindly just yet. And if there was a way to prevent history from repeating itself, the Hokage'd do anything in his power to find it on his own.

Even if it meant becoming someone he'd never wanted to be.


	6. Betrayal

**Chapter 6. Betrayal.**

Ox – Rabbit – Monkey...

"Didn't I tell you that I won't let you use any seals?" Before she was able to react, Hinata felt a painful kick under her knee and, at the same time, her hand has been twisted behind her back, the lightning in the girl's palm dying out just as fast as it had appeared.

She fell to her knees, crying both of pain and frustration.

They've been sparring every single day for more than two weeks by now while the two of them were on their slow way to the Land of Rice Fields. And despite such short amount of time they had together yet, she was able to improve significantly - even with her low self esteem, there was no denying this fact.

The changes were obvious, even in her appearance. The girl now looked more healthy, more... powerful than before. It wasn't notable for a stranger, but she could clearly see it herself. Because her and Sasuke were outdoors this whole time, her usually pale skin got some suntan - not much, but enough for her to be a little surprised whenever she looked at her hands or at her reflection in some river or lake they passed by.

During her not so long ninja career, the missions her team took were usually either too short for this to happen, or, since they were a perfect spying and observation unit due to the abilities of their bloodlines, they worked under cover in different settlements, which basically meant behaving like civilians, staying indoors most of the time.

In other words, she always lacked sunshine before.

Aside from that, her body also changed a little - it became a bit more prominent because of the insane physical work she had to go through in order to be able to use this certain technique Sasuke was teaching her, and well, even though Hinata would probably never admit it out loud, under her clothes she now looked more... s _exy_ than before. Not that it was any important to the Hyūga, but still, it was pleasant thing for the girl to notice for some reason.

Thanks to these changes, along with her new hair and clothes, it finally made her think that she actually looked pretty. Certainly more like a woman and more like a kunoichi than before.

But what amazed her the most was the improvement of her fighting abilities.

Back when she was still a child, Hinata believed that only a genius like her brother or Sasuke could learn an A-rank technique within just a few days. In their case, it was because of the natural talent the boys had in them.

However, Naruto later proved that he could do the same with determination, hard work and unbreakable will.

The Hyūga girl obviously never assumed that she had either of these traits, so never in her life she could imagine doing the same thing they did, but apparently training under a genius also actually meant quite something.

And even though she was impossibly grateful to him for his efforts with the hopeless case she considered herself, sometimes it seemed like he demanded absolutely impossible things from Hinata.

Throughout the history of their clan, Hyūga shinobi used ninjutsu pretty seldom since their specialization was almost always taijutsu. Only the most powerful offsprings of her clan were allowed to learn some forbidden and secret ninjutsu of their ancestors, and of course Hinata never considered herself worthy of receiving such knowledge.

Which was why she had never tried learning ninjutsu before, despite the obvious advantages it could provide to her considering the capabilities of her dōjutsu. She didn't think she was allowed to.

Sasuke, however, had a different opinion on this matter.

Once the Uchiha had found out that her natural affinities were lightning and fire, just like his owns, his mind became fixated on the idea of teaching her the techniques he used and developed himself in order for them to become the base for her further development later, and the first one obviously was his signature jutsu, Chidori.

As he told Hinata, after observing her fighting style during their sparring sessions he came to the conclusion that Chidori would be the perfect pillar for her to start developing her own, unique fighting style that would be based on combining this ninjutsu with Juuken.

And she had to agree with that, once again amazed by his creativity and ability to analyze others' abilities so fast. Considering how versatile Chidori was, after watching him demonstrating her it's capabilities with _Chidori Nagashi_ , _Chidori Eisō_ and _Chidori Senbon_ , if it was to be used by a Hyūga with great chakra control like hers... the girl could imagine the things she'd be able to do once she mastered the lightning manipulation of higher levels.

She got the base Chidori down in just a day after long training in order to increase her agility and speed, which was necessary for it's proper usage, but that was a performance of the same level that Sasuke showed during the chūnin exam years ago. She had to form nine hand seals before the technique became ready to be executed, which was obviously unacceptable considering their goals.

These were the basics that every chūnin well knew - seals were merely a way to shift the chakra flow within the weaver's body in order to direct it in the manner that is required for the technique one is trying to perform. If a certain technique has been used many, many times, the reflex is being formed - the body itself adapts to the usage of the jutsu, thus shortening the preparation time by decreasing the required amount of seals. This was a major part of mastering any ninjutsu, because even the simplest of them could be devastating if used fast enough.

But there were other ways to hasten the process, and even though Sasuke himself said that he didn't have what it takes to go for the one she was currently trying, in his opinion, _she_ did have it.

It was the chakra control.

Being a Hyūga, she was really good at that. But he also said that even aside from her lineage and past training in her clan, she was exceptional on this part. Even though her chakra reserves were nothing close to his own, she was able to spar with him the whole day purely because of this... talent? In fact, she never wasted more chakra than it was necessary, and, come to think of it, it was an incredibly useful skill. The girl never thought of it as of something unusual or rare, but now she could clearly see that even Sasuke himself sometimes wasted his energy for nothing when it could easily be avoided, in her opinion.

It was quite weird to finally realize that she was talented in some area of ninja arts after years of considering herself trash, but Hinata wasn't going to deny it now. The times when she was berating herself were gone for good, and if at least her chakra control was that great, why not admit it and use this as an asset for her training?

Especially since Sasuke put it in the way he did...

On top of that, she had the Byakugan, her dōjutsu that gave her the ability to see the chakra inside of others' bodies. She could literally watch how her own chakra was flowing as she was trying to master the perfect usage of Chidori, and, what was even more important there, she could also watch _his_ chakra during their training, which gave her deeper understanding of how the technique was supposed to work.

Now, after a few days of working on it, she could perform Chidori with just three hand seals, which made her very excited and, at once, a bit proud of herself.

And this was where the problem started.

Because unlike her, he wasn't satisfied with this result at all.

And since the very morning of that day, he kept beating crap out of the girl, forcing her to use Chodori without weaving any signs at all. Which was new to her, because before that day he was never that harsh during their spars, and the thought that he was probably losing his patience with her was only frustrating her even more.

Because she felt that the task he gave her was impossible - she just couldn't comprehend how did he do that, especially with such ease.

And it was irritating her. Under different circumstances, she'd think that the key to this secret was the Sharingan or some other Uchiha kekkei genkai she wasn't aware of, and that he was just mocking her.

But after everything she did to finally be accepted by him as his apprentice, after hours and days he spent on patiently teaching her and caring for her, this obviously wasn't the case.

And this made her even more angry, because it would be easy to blame him for her misfortunes. But she knew that she was just too stupid to understand what exactly she was doing wrong while he expected her to realize it a lot sooner.

Both of them grew impatient, and that was perfectly understandable - she wanted to become stronger as fast as possible, and Sasuke wanted to move on to teaching her something more interesting and complicated, because well, for him, this was probably about as hard as throwing a kunai. And according to the Uchiha's words, being able to use Chidori properly was the keystone for the real training.

Yes, she knew and understood it very well - the real deal was only to come later. What they did up to now, despite it seeming to her like a bloody hell, was merely a child's play, especially for him. He wasn't forcing her to do anything she wasn't capable of, and he also never punished her for her failures before, but it only made her realize how deep and wide was the gap between the two of them, and for the first time in her life she realized how foolish she was before, dreaming to become a jōnin like Neji.

Sasuke was still a genin, and he could obliterate any jōnin that came on her mind without moving from his spot.

Despite what they all have been taught since the day they started attending the academy, in reality, rankings meant nothing.

Which is why she wasn't afraid of the idea of being a nukenin anymore. It was just another shortcut to simplify everything for those who couldn't use their own brain and think.

A nukenin meant an enemy. A genin meant a weakling. A jōnin meant an elite ninja. A Kage meant someone of godly power.

In reality, things were very different. But to those who gave orders, it didn't matter. The cannon fodder was fed with this nonsense, blindly believing in their seniors' wisdom, only to either be lucky enough to survive before they'd become able see through these lies, or to die because of their misjudgement on their foes.

When she understood this simple truth, once again the Hyūga girl realized how cruel and twisted their world actually was. This system they all were parts of... it needed to be changed.

And this also made her finally understand the Uchiha a bit better than before, as well as strengthened her assurance of the simple fact - following him was her destiny. After all, she did everything right.

And despite all this...

She failed miserably, being kicked like a sack of potatoes on the thick grass of the beautiful glade they were currently staying at.

"Come on... get up. I won't let you lie down and rest until you complete your task."

Hinata growled in anger that was mostly directed at herself, and rolled away from him, getting up on her shaking legs.

"One... two... three!"

He charged at her again, and she tried to block his punch, once again failing to do so - another burst of pain, and she was on her back, eyeing the evening sky.

The method he was currently using was rather simple - he was attacking her whenever she tried to weave hand seals or did nothing at all.

She didn't understand it, though. In order to figure out the way this was supposed to work, she needed to stay calm for a while, to test it, to analyze what she was doing...

But he never let her. In fact, he didn't give her a single break since the morning, and how on earth was she supposed to do what he wanted in such conditions?!

He kicked her on the ribs, making the girl curl on the ground, moaning of the increasing pain in her whole body.

"I said get up! Do you want to die?"

Another kick that made her spit some blood.

"If you don't do it now, then you really are a waste. Should I reconsider my decision of teaching you?"

She winced, letting out a deep growl, barely managing to roll away again and dodging another merciless strike of his.

"I can't! You don't let me think! I don't understand how to do that, I need time...!"

"You wouldn't have any time should it be some ANBU instead of me. Or some rapist like those Gatō 's dogs in Nami no Kuni." He punched her in the face, making the girl feel like she was about to faint. But no, she could still hear him, even though her vision got a bit worse than usual because of blood spilling down from her forehead to the eyes.

The girl clenched her fists, desperately avoiding another hit as she was trying to focus her last energy to defend herself.

Was he really considering killing her now? Did he decide that she was unworthy...?

Wasn't she...?

But it didn't make any sense, it was unlike his usual self...

"Pathetic. You're trash. A worthless weakling who knows nothing of being a real kunoichi."

That was the truth. Yet still, his words hurt her deeply. And there she thought that the two of them were actually getting along...

A mistake that was now going to cost her life?

Oh, the irony. And this was happening just after she promised herself to not rely on anybody ever again...

"That's right..." Just when Hinata was about to fall down to the ground as she felt how the last crumbs of power were leaving her body, he caught her, forcing the girl to stay on her knees by holding a few strands of her hair. "You're nothing. Just like that foolish brat you called a brother who died a pointless death when he tried to protect your useless life. I guess you'll enjoy having a nice, long chat with that idiot when the two of you meet in the afterlife..."

Hinata wasn't able to see anything but the bloody veil that suddenly covered her eyes.

She was going to be killed by him? Fine, then fuck her life. Fuck everything, she was indeed a waste, and she always knew it anyway. It couldn't be helped.

But he... the Uchiha wasn't allowed to say such things about Neji.

She wouldn't allow anybody talk bad of him.

He was going to pay, even if it would to be the last thing she did in her life.

Letting out a loud growl of primal rage, she charged at him, only to gasp as she did so.

Because a few things happened simultaneously.

First, she realized that her hand has pierced his chest like a hot needle could get through a piece of butter - as if it was nothing.

The girl then noticed, looking through him, that her arm was covered in chakra of lightning element.

And only when the realization that for some reason she finally managed to use Chidori without forming any seals at all hit her, before she could somehow react to this revelation, the world around her began literally shattering into pieces, and just a second later the girl could see that she, in fact, wasn't hurt at all, but her hand was indeed bathed in the sparkling lightnings.

And, on top of that, Sasuke's strong fingers clenched her wrist, and he wasn't reacting to the supposedly hurtful effects of her technique at all.

Oh.

Apparently he was using the Preta Path of his Rinnegan, absorbing her chakra to prevent the damage.

And everything she went through for the last hours was merely his genjutsu. She didn't suffer any of his blows for real - the only part of her being hurt was her mind.

It all made sense now. Thas was his intention - to make her believe that he decided to kill her, while in reality he was simply driving her to the extreme point to make her do something extraordinary under the effects of the adrenaline rush.

He smiled warmly, uttering with clear satisfaction in his voice:

"Well done. It took you a bit longer than I expected, but great job nonetheless. Now we can move on to something more..."

He was taken aback by her suddenly slapping his face; Hinata took her arm out of his grasp, looking infuriated for the first time as far as the Uchiha could remember.

"Don't ever say anything like this about Neji-niisan again."

She turned away from Sasuke, carefully striding to their tent to pick her flask of water that rested under it along with her other stuff.

Since her Byakugan was deactivated at the moment and she was too overwhelmed by the swirl of emotions concerning the things he did to her, the girl never noticed the expression on Sasuke's face.

He was smirking in relief, looking at her with apparent joy in his eyes.

* * *

An hour later, Sasuke and Hinata were walking the narrow road that led to Tanzaku-gai, the small town north from Konoha where Sasuke planned to stay and rest before finally moving on to Orochimaru's land.

Of course, he wasn't going to pass through the Hidden Leaf village or anywhere nearby, so they skirted Konoha through the tracts in the eastern part of Land of Fire, which costed them an additional week of traveling.

After receiving the message from Kakashi, which Sasuke decided to not share with his newfound student just yet so that she wouldn't get distracted from her training, he tried to spend their daytimes in relatively aloof areas that were rarely visited even by shinobi, not to mention civilians, and since they were only traveling at nights, that also slowed them down quite a lot.

The Uchiha was by no means a fool, and after reading the Hokage's words, he realized that Hinata was being searched, mostly unofficially since there was no solid evidence that could lead to the conclusion that she had been abducted, and yet, on the other side, there was no _official_ reason for her to leave the village all of sudden.

One didn't have to be a genius to realize that the sealing issue wouldn't be announced in public, since it was a private matter of their clan. Considering how awful this measure was, it also became obvious that the Hyūga Clan wouldn't want anyone to find out what they intended to do with the girl, and especially they wouldn't tell the Hokage about it, considering how big could be the following impact, knowing Kakashi and his crew, not to mention the fact that he might as well enlist other Kage's support in this case.

This meant that the Hyūga were in a pretty delicate position right now - in order to initiate an international search, they had to provide a very convincing evidence of something _specific_. If they simply said "she's missing and we have no idea why and where she is", they'd be forced to allow ANBU into their compound to investigate it there, which was out of the question for such a secretive and closed clan like theirs.

Which made Sasuke realize that most likely only a small amount of Konoha's forces were assigned for the search duty.

And most of those who were now looking for Hinata were from her very clan, since they would naturally want to deal with this problem on their owns considering all the conditions they were put in.

But even though that was a relatively small amount of people, each of them possessed the Byakugan. If they were dispersed through the Land of Fire in a smart way, they could likely cover the whole country's territory with their field of vision.

Which made both of them potentially being in a huge trouble.

He didn't know what exactly they would do with her should Hinata's clansmen have found them, but somehow he was sure that their intentions were far from being any good. And she was too weak for a clash with them yet. He'd probably need at least another six months of training her to make sure that the girl was able to protect herself against her clan, and even that was questionable since he didn't know how powerful were their best shinobi.

Until then, he wasn't going to let his guard down. The Uchiha realized that he was the only person around to protect her from a very unpleasant fate - after she ran away that night, he was pretty sure that the cursed seal would be the least of her problems should she get caught.

Which is why he did everything to hide both of them from any potential threat, even if he had to come up with a very questionable way of doing this.

His Rinnegan's _Gakidō_ gave him the ability to absorb any chakra. However, after mastering this technique, he also realized that it actually worked both ways. In other words, he could take someone's chakra and give it back to them later.

Of course, a person would die if there was no chakra left in the body, so he had to be careful to always leave a small portion of it so they would survive the extraction. Being careful enough, he could basically turn a shinobi or a kunoichi into a civilian that didn't have any chakra-based abilities for continuous amount of time. And even though it left them absolutely unprotected to the threats of shinobi world, there was also a very handy side effect that he relied on these days, draining Hinata's chakra by holding her hand.

Without her chakra, she became a very difficult target to track down, even with Byakugan.  
And once her chakra got into his own system, he could cover with his energy with ease, considering how low the amount was compared with his own.

Which was a perfect trump card for them - since he could protect her from anyone and anything on their way, she only needed her power during their training, which he granted her when the Uchiha considered them relatively well hidden from any scouts.

Walking down the crooked road with her hand in his, Sasuke smirked as he imagined how they must have looked from a stranger's point of view. Probably like some lovely couple enjoying their trip...

But then, should the person take a closer look, one would realize that something was off with them.

Ever since the end of their spar an hour ago, she refused to talk to him. Apparently he hurt her feelings deeply, but there was no choice - even though he disliked this way, there hardly was any other at the moment. Her usual defensive reaction was submission and self blaming for everything bad caused to her. Such agenda needed to be changed, because, unlike anger and hatred, these emotions never motivated one to do something extraordinary, but, on the contrary, they destroyed any motivation to do anything at all.

That's why he was getting on her nerves in his genjutsu in every possible way, trying to enrage the girl. And he was very pleased by the fact that he managed to make it pretty easily - all he had to do was to find the right buttons to push, which he successfully did.

It meant that she wasn't as self-contained as he originally thought. Which in turn meant that he wouldn't have to do much to help her to get out of the abyss of her depression and despair. After all, she had a spine - the girl was only convinced that she didn't. Convinced by the others.

Hinata, on the other hand, most likely didn't understand his reasoning just yet, seeing as the girl was walking ahead without watching at him at all. If anything, she's been ignoring him ever since their training session earlier was over, and this was pretty unusual of her. Even though they didn't talk much during their travel, the two of them always shared words from time to time, here and there. Despite his usual, calm attitude, he was pretty kind to her until that day.

What Sasuke didn't realize himself was the reason of her being so locked up all of sudden.

He assumed that this all was because of his words about Neji and him suddenly behaving so harsh and cruel during their training, but that was a misconception.

In fact, he didn't understand what was going on inside the girl's head at all.

In reality, she felt conflicted about her feelings for the Uchiha.

It was always so... bipolar. So weird. So complicated.

And it disturbed her quite a lot.

Sasuke was doing everything for her, giving her the light of hope she craved so much, and that made him become the center of her world, the person Hinata would gladly give her life for, after all the things he and his guidance gave her when she thought that her life was already over...

Hell, he made her feel alive for the first time since she day was born! And that alone was more than enough for her to pledge her allegiance to him forever.

He was also her master now, and she had sworn to follow all of his instructions and to do everything he told her without any questions or hesitation.

She had no romantic feelings for him, and Hinata actually doubted that she would ever have them for anyone again, especially considering the recent changes in her mind and soul. But when the girl asked herself that question one night, gazing at the stars, she realized that if she was ready to die for Sasuke, it also meant that her life belonged to the Uchiha now. Both her soul and her... body.

Should he ask for it, she was ready to do anything in her power to please him, too.

And when she realized it, some part of the girl was frightened. How could she be so calm when it came to such things?! Would she really do it if he asked her to...? She'd be afraid to even think about it just a month ago, and what was she turning into now...? His toy? His slave?

No. He never forced her to do anything she didn't want to.

And that was another sign of his nobility.

No matter what they said about him, Uchiha Sasuke was a great man. Sure, he was pretty harsh and sometimes could be very cruel, especially with his enemies, but everything he did was for the greater good in the end.

But perhaps he just didn't find her attractive enough?

This thought made her pretty sad for some reason, and she didn't understand why. She wasn't interested in him liking her, right? She was merely his student, his tool, if he wanted it... hopefully she would become his loyal weapon in future.

But then again, he never showed any sign of interest in any female what so ever. Perhaps he just didn't care at all? But he was a man, was this even possible...? Guys always chased girls, or at least had crushes that they silently watched, too hesitant and shy to approach. Her teammates were the prime examples of both sides of this coin.

Maybe he was just too good at hiding his emotions?

Or perhaps he already was in love with somebody?

Yes, that had to be it...

He was just too loyal to look at any other woman when he already had somebody waiting for him. Being put this way, it all made perfect sense.

Hinata remembered how when she was a child, she heard the tales about the love of Uchiha.

They said that there were nobody in this whole world who could love as deeply as the Uchiha men and women did. Once an Uchiha fell in love with somebody, his or her mind and heart belonged to the chosen one forever, and their feelings only strengthened with years passing.

She could also remember how some girls of the Branch House of her clan dreamed to marry an Uchiha when they became adults, just because of these tales. Back then, all of them wanted a prince from this glorious clan to come for them and save them from the destiny of caged birds they were all being prepared for...

It all ended with the Uchiha Clan massacre, their naive, childish dreams being destroyed just like Sasuke's very family, even though the comparison was probably wrong, in a way.

But Hinata still remembered those cute, naive stories, but Sasuke's example made her want to actually believe that they were true. Which is why the girl now wondered who Sasuke loved so much. And this also made her respect him even more.

 _Perhaps they will meet his beloved one during their travel?_

She didn't understand why, but this thought made something inside of her twitch unpleasantly.

But anyway, summarizing it all, Sasuke was obviously wrong in his judgement concerning her emotions.

But not completely wrong.

What he did in that genjutsu really enraged her so much for the first time in Hinata's life, and it only made this whole bunch of emotions and new impressions even more complicated for her. She liked the feeling of relief and tranquility after her outburst, though.

She also loved the fact that she was able to overpower the barrier in her mind that blocked her from achieving what he wanted her to achieve.

At first, the Hyūga girl wanted to ask him why he had to be so brutal with her mind back then, but after she gave it some thinking, she understood his reasoning.

He wanted to push her psychic and her body to their limits in order to break her inner barriers that blocked her from advancing, her strong emotions serving the catalyst for the forming of the necessary reflexes.

And it worked.

No wonder it did, because his ideas always worked.

He wasn't called a genius for nothing.

Now when he was back to his usual behavior, Hinata found it ridiculous that she had sincerely believed that he was going to kill her just an hour ago. This was absurd - Sasuke never even hurt her before... well, at least on purpose. She should of realized that it was all just a part of his plan... she could've seen through his illusion if she was smart enough.

But if she did, would his plan has worked...?

Probably not.

She guessed that she should just trust the Uchiha on this matter.

So, basically, she was being torn apart between her past self that was yelling that what she did every day now was absolutely wrong, and the new self that loved these new experiences and wanted more.

 _Much more._

Seeing how conflicted she appeared, the Uchiha didn't want to initiate any conversation with her concerning the recent events. In his opinion, it was better for Hinata to overcome her inner struggles on her own, without any help.

He wanted the Hyūga girl to become a person that would be able to stand alone on her own, and if he interfered too much, she would only exchange one way of hiding from reality to another.

To him.

And he didn't want it, of course.

That's is why he deliberately pushed her away from time to time, sometimes in debatably harsh ways, only to get closer with her afterwards, not realizing that it only made her mind more and more captured by thoughts of him... after all, Sasuke didn't know much about how hearts of women work, so he couldn't predict such effect.

Both of them deep in their own thoughts, the Uchiha and the Hyūga didn't notice how they approached Tanzaku-gai in just a few hours of silent walking through the darkness of the chilly autumn night.

The town itself was pretty welcoming considering the time they came in there - it seemed like people in this place lived in their own rhythm, so the small town that was also well known as the lair of all the gamblers in Hi no Kuni seemed to be equally alive any time of the day.

People on the streets scurried here and there, each of them with their own business; some vendors already tried to sell some garbage to Sasuke and Hinata, and barkers called from everywhere for them to visit different pubs, bars, casinos, brothels and other wonderful establishments this town was filled with.

It was very much unlike Konoha, and Hinata seemed to be a bit shocked by her surroundings, looking a little lost - apparently the girl has never been here before.

But unlike her, Sasuke knew full well where they were heading to, so the Uchiha ignored everyone and everything on their way to the nice, humble hotel in the outskirts with a seemingly decent pub on the first floor of the building.

Walking inside, he told Hinata to sit down at one of the empty tables and went to make an order for them - some soup and salad for her, and onigiri with fish and shrimps for himself. He also spoke with the hotel's manager and ordered a room for them to stay during the upcoming day - she needed a good rest and sleep, and he was pretty tired himself, truth to be told.

They ate in silence, both of them lazily watching people around them and interior of the hall they sat in, too tired to initiate any conversation - and not that either of them wanted to talk at the moment anyway.

The pub was rather nice, to Sasuke's taste - he didn't fancy pompous restaurants, and, at the same time, he also didn't quite enjoy staying in gloomy hangouts like he had to a few times years ago when he was on his search for Itachi.

Apparently the Hyūga girl didn't mind this place, either. But he wasn't quite sure on this, seeing as she was still too absorbed by whatever thoughts were swirling in her head after their latest training.

Once they have finished their meals, Sasuke took a keyring out of his pocket.

"I ordered the room number seven for us. I see you're pretty tired, you should go and have some rest." He handed her the keys, finally getting Hinata out of her inner world.

She looked him in the eyes for the first time that night, a bit worried.

"And you?" She mumbled as if the girl wasn't sure if she was allowed to ask such question.

"I'll stay here for a while, just in case. I have a bad feeling for some reason, and I don't wanna sleep just yet anyway."

She could see that he wasn't completely honest with her at the moment, but Hinata was too tired to venture into it any further, and it was up for him to decide what to do regardless of her opinion anyway. She was nobody to object.

Taking the keys, she thanked him for the food and walked upstairs to their room. Watching as Hinata left, Sasuke waited a little to check if some drunk goon or any other idiot would decide to follow her up there – it would be really bad if he didn't notice one, considering how defenseless she was now without her chakra and being so tired physically.

But nobody seemed to care about her. In fact, the atmosphere was rather friendly and warm, too much to his expectations of a place like this, in a town like Tanzaku-gai.

Well, anyway, he didn't mind pleasant surprises. The less problems he... they had, the better.

Getting up from their table, the Uchiha walked to the barman, ordering a small bottle of sake.

He was going to sit there for a while, to listen to what people around him were talking about. To feel the atmosphere better, to get the feeling and understanding of their lives. That was the original goal of his journey, after all...

Taking a sip of sake, he fixed a strand of his hair that was covering his left eye. He didn't want to scare any civilians with the Rinnegan, which obviously looked quite frightening to them – he already witnessed it back in Nami no Kuni.

Feeling the warmth that filled his insides with his drink, the raven haired teen smiled for the first time in a long time.

He was slowly adapting to such easy life. A life without revenge.

Before, he couldn't understand how simple people, civilians, lived at all. They were useless, they did nothing interesting, they decided nothing in this world. They were just some miserable bugs for him.

But now he realized that one could live just for the new impressions, for the joy of life. For simple pleasures like tasty food and hot sake, or for chatting in a good company of beautiful women... or gambling. Or whatever.

Even though it would probably take him quite some time to learn to live this way, he was now sure that he'd like it... from time to time. It was a great relief and relaxation after all the nightmares and hardships of shinobi life.

After all, he, of everyone else, surely deserved some small moments of sweet oblivion, without a doubt.

But when he told Hinata that he had a bad feeling, he wasn't lying.  
And apparently his mood was destined to get ruined that beautiful and peaceful night.

Because only an hour passed since Hinata went to sleep, and he was already hearing familiar voices behind his back.

Turning his head a bit, he watched as the three shinobi sat at the table not far from his current position, discussing something pretty loudly.

"I tell you this, Shino is never wrong! If his bugs felt her chakra around this place, then we're at least going in the right direction!"

"But I can't see her anywhere around. Aburame-kun, can you still feel it?"

"Affirmative. The trace of her chakra here is clear, despite being pretty weak. She's either very well hidden, which is probably false since you can't see her with your Byakugan, or she was here a while ago... a few days, maybe. I'm not sure."

"Oi, oi... Akamaru, calm down! What's wrong, buddy...?" Kiba tried to calm his dog that was barking now... looking at his direction.

 _Damn you, Inuzuka._

Slowly getting up from his spot, Sasuke started walking to the stairway that led to their room on the second floor.

He realized that there was no way out of this conversation with them now, but he still wanted to try – perhaps they were a bit more stupid than he always thought...?

"Hey! You there! Wait...!"

The Uchiha silently cursed as he ignored Kiba's voice, continuing getting up.

He needed to warn Hinata at least.

But they actually managed to exceed his expectations, though in a different way - before he was able to enter their room, they were already there in the corridor, peering at him dangerously.

It was only then when he turned to face them, sighing in defeat.  
They all gasped, seeing who it was before them.

"S-Sasuke-teme...! What are you doing here...?" The Inuzuka boy looked a bit lost now - clearly he didn't expect to see the Uchiha here, of all people.

"None of your business, really." Came the cold reply.

"Yeah, like hell it isn't...! We're here looking for..."

"Shut up, Kiba." The Aburame boy suddenly barked, and Sasuke's respect for this weirdo increased just a bit as he did so. Of all his former classmates, this one was probably the least irritating to him, and arguably the easiest one to deal with. "Sasuke, I believe you are aware why we're here and who we're looking for. Seeing as you have fresh traits of her chakra on your body, I suggest you tell us where she is. It is very important for us to insure her well being, as her teammates and friends, we're very worried about her. I hope you can understand it."

Sasuke clenched his teeth in frustration. Of course he knew what he meant. And well, of all the people he saw in Hinata's memories, these two almost didn't do anything bad to his student. If he was to let someone meet her at all, that would most likely be these two.

But there was also the third man...

"I do. But who is this clown...?" He nodded at the Hyūga man with short, black hair, who looked quite a few years older than the rest of them, probably around Kakashi's age.

Before the Hyūga managed to reply, the door to their room slowly opened and the sleepy Hinata showed up, dressed in her long, white shirt that looked suspiciously similar to Sasuke's own, along with a pair of black shorts. Her hair was quite tousled, and she looked as if the girl wasn't sure if she was still dreaming or not.

"Sasuke...? What's going on...?" She mumbled, not noticing how she suddenly forgot to add the "-san" suffix to his name like she usually did, which made him wonder for a second what was she dreaming about before they woke her up.

But he didn't take any time to think about it, because the expressions of her teammates were much more entertaining - they were indescribable, just... priceless.

He smirked.

"Not much... we have some guests, I believe you know them. I was about to let them enter our room, but I wasn't sure who this third guy is... and I didn't want them to ruin your rest. Sorry about that." He smiled, too tempted to play with their minds a little. It was pretty obvious what they thought about the two of them sharing the room, with barely dressed Hinata showing up and talking to him without any honorifics, as if they were...

He preferred to leave it up for them to decide what exactly they were seeing at the moment.

Apparently still not completely awake, she smiled warmly to him, which made Sasuke second guess what on earth was this girl seeing in her sleep.

"Guests...? Who are the... oh..." She finally noticed the three of them, her expression changing he instant he recognized the shinobi. "What are you doing here?" She asked, her tone suddenly becoming indifferent, almost rude.

There was a long moment of silence, for her teammates were obviously too shocked by the show they've just witnessed. The first one to open his mouth was, as always, Kiba:

"What do you mean what are we doing here, Hinata?! You just disappeared that night without saying anything to anyone, and where the hell you've been at?! We were so worried about you, and you just ran away with this bastard to... to... to sleep with him?!" He yelled in rage, pointing at Sasuke with his finger.

The Uchiha was simply having fun with this situation. He was wondering now what would be her response; after all, he did spend quite some time working with her, and he knew damn well that she was now pretty different from the Hinata they knew.

Her face remained expressionless as the girl simply shrugged.

"So what if I did? I never asked you to come for me. And why are you worried anyway? I'm fine." The Uchiha was barely able to hold a laugh, glancing at her only to narrow his eyes in an interesting revelation. She wasn't looking at Shino or Kiba, her eyes were focused on the third man.

And apparently the said Hyūga guy noticed this, too.

"Hinata-sama... please, follow me back to our quarters. Hiashi-sama is impossibly worried, he assigned the whole clan to look for you, he wants you to be safe..."

"Is that so? Last time we talked, he wanted to put the cursed seal on me so he could sell me as a slave for some rich man later for his political benefits or whatever else he could come up with... I wouldn't quite enjoy such safety, so I guess I'll have to refuse."

Shino and Kiba gasped, taking a step away from the Hyūga shinobi.

To Aburame, it all became obvious and clear now. This scene she was playing here with them, it was for _the Hyuuga man_. She was testing _his_ intentions, which were clearly no good now that everything finally made sense when they found out why she left. Putting the seal on his own daughter... it was terrible, and now Shino understood why she decided to leave Konoha. And the bluff about being sold away... of course, it was nonsense. Nobody would be able to legitimately make a slave out of a kunoichi. The worst possible thing that could happen would be serving to some mediocre feudal lord as a bodyguard for the rest of her life, which was considered the worst possible assignment among shinobi of Konoha... a job for weaklings and those who are not trustworthy. Basically, if the Uchiha wasn't a friend of their new Hokage and Naruto, he would most likely have been put in such position for his crimes.

Apparently Hinata thought that he this member of her clan would believe this and it was supposed take some effect on the male Hyūga. She wanted to see his reaction to make a decision wether she should trust him or not.

What a surprisingly smart and cunning move of his female teammate...

Kiba wasn't that clever, though, but apparently he didn't want such horrible fate for his friend and teammate, the girl he was used to protect during their missions together. Even though he didn't see through her gamble there, well... in his opinion, Sasuke was a douchebag, but the Hokage trusted him, and so did Naruto. And apparently Hinata trusted him now, too. Even though he, Kiba, disliked the Uchiha...

In his opinion, she better be with him than spend the rest of her life serving and doing gods know what to some random civilian scumbag filled with money and nothing more.

But the Hyūga man looked pretty surprised himself by her words to say the least, laying his hand on his heart in shock once he heared her reply.

"Oh, gods... Hinata-sama, what are you saying...? I'm sure it must be some mistake..."

"I'm telling the truth. Or do you want to try to convince me that you were not aware, Kō?" She asked, narrowing her white eyes, her own arms crossed on her chest.

"I... Hinata-sama, I swear I didn't know...! If only I could assume that... that such... I..."

Her features softened. Apparently she knew the man well enough to trust him now after seeing his response, which Sasuke didn't really mind. He was her family, after all, and even in such a twisted clan like Hyūga there had to be some trustworthy, normal people.

"Maybe you didn't. But now you know why I'm not coming back. Kō, Shino, Kiba... you better go back to Konoha and pretend that you couldn't find me. It will be better for all of us. I can't get back. And I'm safe with Sasuke-san here." She nodded at the Uchiha, relaxing a little.

"O-of course, Hinata-sama! I will do as you please!" Kō fell down to his knee, bowing his head down in submission and respect.

Shino seemed like he understood what she was saying, too.

Kiba, though...

"Something had to be done about it, Hinata! This... your bastard of a dad can't just do that to you...! Why do you have to be on the run and hiding because of this moron?! We can do it, and I'm sure Sasuke will help you, too, even though he's a jerk, but still...! Together, we can come up with something...!"

"We already did. The Hokage is aware of the situation, and we're working on the solution. The two of us must lay low for now, it's a part of the plan. Don't worry." The Uchiha suddenly said, making Hinata gaze at him in surprise, but not saying anything. "It's indeed better for you guys to come back to Konoha and pretend as if you've seen nothing. You can ask the Sixth to confirm my words here, he will do it, be sure on this."

The search team went silent for a moment. They didn't want to go away, obviously. And they didn't really trust the Uchiha, but seeing as Hinata herself agreed with him... and after all she said... it was probably their only option right now.

The Hyūga girl suddenly stepped forward, coming closer to her teammates and smiling assuringly.

"Don't worry. I'm in good hands, and we will find a way out of it, eventually. We'll see each other again, I promise."

Kiba sighed, hugging the girl.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Hinata... and damn, why Sasuke, of all the cool guys like me...?" He chuckled jokingly before nearly whispering, suddenly looking worried: "And what about Naruto...?"

Before she could reply anything to him to finally clarify the misunderstanding about her relationship with the Uchiha, they all suddenly heard a venomous hissing:

"Perhaps because traitors like to stick together?"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he heard it, and he felt confused for a split second, which was more than ample for Kō - the man sliced Hinata's leg with a kunai, making the girl shriek as she fell down to the floor, moaning of sudden burst of pain and trying to stop the streaming blood.

"Sasuke! No!" Shino yelled, which made the Uchiha flinch a little, holding his sword half of an inch away from the Hyūga's throat. "You can't kill him now! If you do it, we won't be able to say that we found nothing, the whole cover up story will fail - they'll realize what happened! It will be only a matter of time then!"

 _Damn it!_

The Aburame's words were reasonable.

Quite unlike Kō's actions.

Why just cut her with a kunai when he had a perfect opportunity to kill her...?

Sasuke grabbed the man's neck and roared demandingly:

"What have you done to her? What's on that blade?!"

The Hyūga smirked, meeting his eyes that were filled with hatred for the first time since the end of the war.

"It's the Hyūga clan's way of exterminating the traitors and sealing the Byakugan at the same time... but I won't tell you anything more, Uchiha. Do whatever you want now, it's all over now anyway."

"Over...?!" He gasped, turning his head to Hinata who slowly got up with Kiba's help.

"Sasuke-san..." She uttered, surprisingly calm. Too calm for a situation like this, really. "It's the poison that works on genetic level... _Saigo no Yume_. I'm going to die within an hour."

"What?!" Sasuke, Shino and Kiba yelled simultaneously, refusing to believe what they've just heard. "It can't be." The Uchiha snapped, looking in the girl's empty eyes. "There has to be a cure...!"

"There is no cure. It's developed specifically for Hyūga, Sasuke-san... I'm afraid you can do nothing to help this. I was foolish enough to trust my family again, and this mistake costed me my life in the end... I guess you were right, Sasuke-san. I'm trash... and I deserve such death." There were no tears in her eyes, only calmness, and...

Resignation.


	7. Avenger

**Chapter 7. Avenger**

Using that little amount of chakra she regenerated while she was asleep, Hinata activated her Byakugan to check her chakra system and tenketsu, only to confirm what she said just a moment ago.

She was dying.

For some reason, the realization of this fact didn't make the Hyūga girl any afraid or even nervous at all.  
In fact, she felt nothing.

A void.

Perhaps she always knew that she'd end up like... like this. Betrayed by the only person person from her clan about who she could still say that she actually trusted him.

It was true. She did. After all, this man basically raised her, protected her with his life for so many years...  
This very man that has just killed her.

So that was her father's decision... To eradicate her. Her former guardian had little choice but to obey Hiashi's orders. But...  
There was no regret in his eyes.  
He _wanted_ this.

 _He_ , of all people...

There was no way out now, she was dead. A walking corpse.  
But apparently her damned father didn't want to make it any easier for her... even in her agony, Hinata would know how worthless she was, being betrayed by every person she ever loved.

Although apparently Sasuke wasn't as calm about what was happening there as she was.

She gazed at the Uchiha, her eyes filled with detachment and aloofness, as he yelled in rage like she'd never seen him do before:

"No! Shut up, you idiot! How does it work?! Tell me, you fucker!" He kicked Kō in the face, making the man fall down to the dark green carpet, only to grab him like a doll again a second later, the Rinnegan eye dangerously glowing.

Was he reading his memories now just like he did with her at the very beginning of their short journey...?

But then the Uchiha suddenly frowned.

And it was... weird. Despite her own condition, she was enchanted by the changes on his face as he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, Kō's chakra becoming disrupted a second later.

He was using a genjutsu on her executioner. A very strong one.

And after the lessons they had together, she well knew what exactly it was...

She recalled the conversation they had a few weeks ago.

 _"Listen... I understand that you treasure the secrets of your clan deeply, even though you don't know much. And I respect it, even though by no means I respect your clan itself. Because my own clan is not any different. Which is why I'm not going to ask you anything about your Byakugan that you don't want to share. But considering that I'm probably the last Uchiha alive, you need to learn a little about my abilities, since we're going to work as a tag-team for quite some time."_

 _She lowered her eyes to the grass and hemmed._

 _"As if it's any trouble for you to read my memories with that left eye of yours... and get all the secrets without my permission."_

 _"Yeah, that's exactly my point. But there are two things that stop me from doing so."_

 _She eyed him again with curiosity, though not saying anything in response, letting him continue if he pleased to do so._

 _"First, like I said – I respect your privacy and traditions you were raised along with. And second... I'm not really interested unless it involves your training. Make no mistake - Hyūga are no match for Uchiha, and even if it was any different, your secrets would be useless to any of us, since we would never want to change our dōjutsu for Byakugan."_

 _The girl smiled, shaking her head a little. Not that it wasn't justified, but Sasuke was pretty prideful of his lineage, as far as she noticed. And she sort of agreed with him about the whole secrecy issue of her clan. It was totally unnecessary to be at such extent, because compared with the power hidden behind Sharingan, Byakugan was nothing interesting at all._  
 _Well, at least in her opinion._

 _Frowning at her reaction a bit, he continued:_

 _"Anyway, I'm pertty sure you are already familiar with base Sharingan abilities, since the descriptions of them in the books of Konoha's library are pretty detailed, so we're gonna skip this part." She nodded, agreeing. Every Chuunin read about them at least once... well, those of their generation and their predecessors most certainly did._

 _"Mangekyō Sharingan, however, is a different story. It gives me three basic abilities – you've already seen some of them, the first one being Enton manipulation - it is more commonly known as Amaterasu. With my left eye, I'm able to summon black flames, and with my right one I can manipulate their shape and magnitude. They are extremely hot, and they can't be extinguished in any ordinary way. I can do it with my right eye, and I think there might be some complex seal that can manage it as well... but that's about it. That's why you should never, ever let it touch you. Once you got caught, you are dead. Remember it for good."_

 _She didn't understand why he told her this. It's not like there was any other wielder of this doujutsu around, was he considering killing her...? Or he was afraid that she might get hit by collateral damage...?_  
 _Yes, that had to be it._  
 _Not only that, but she also desperately wanted to ask him how exactly the Sharingan evolved into Mangekyō... but the girl assumed that it was one of his clan's secrets he wouldn't like to reveal to her._

 _"The other ability is Susanō. It's my chakra manifestation that serves both as offensive and defensive. Depending on my current condition and the amount of chakra I have at the moment, it can be like his," A few purple, barely notable ribs formed of chakra appeared around his body, "Or like the form you've seen during the war." He turned the jutsu off. "It also gives me the ability to fly with it's wings if I need it. And one more thing about it... I didn't know that it was possible, but my ancestor, Madara, has used Susanō without actually having his eyes in his skull, so I suspect that in theory I could do it as well. This information might turn to be useful in future, because anything can happen in our world."_

 _She gasped in awe, remembering how the Uchiha was able to cover the whole Naruto's giant chakra avatar when they took Obito down... with the Susanō sword delivering the deciding blow._

 _And with such abilities, along with his immense chakra reserves, skill and intelligence... her new teacher was incredibly, absolutely impossibly strong even with his Sharingan alone._

 _She was afraid to imagine what he was capable of now that he had Rinnegan as well..._

 _"And the last ability is the one I never used properly, so I want to train it, too. Tsukuyomi. Yeah, it's the weaker version of that jutsu Madara performed on the whole world." He said, seeing as the girl flinched when she heard the familiar name. "Using my right eye's power, I can draw anyone into the world of illusions where time flows differently - I may torture you for a week in there, and only a few seconds will pass here in our reality. It's very useful both for fighting and training - imagine reading a book in there for the whole day, getting all the information you need in just a split second? Sounds good enough, isn't it?" He smirked, seeing as she smiled, apparently finally understanding where he was leading this little lecture to._

 _"Y-Yes... I wasn't aware of something like that even existing..." She muttered, stuttering a little, but this time more because of the impression his idea left on her than anything else._

 _The man was truly genius._

 _"No wonder. The Uchiha clan has it's secrets, too. But anyway... let's get started."_

 _She gasped again, meeting the beautiful pattern of his Mangekyō, only to see the sky becoming bloody red a second later._

Sasuke used Tsukuyomi on Kō. Right after he read his memories.

But then something incomprehensible to everyone in the room happened.

After a few seconds of holding the eye contact with Kō, before the second man started yelling, suffering terrible phantom pain, a single tear came from Sasuke's eye, slowly flowing down his face.

The Uchiha was... crying?

Why?

Because she was doomed?

Hinata doubted it. Even though their relationship was... decent, considering what a complicated person he was, the girl knew that she shouldn't hold any delusions.

She wasn't dear to him. She wasn't his lover, his friend... even his teammate.

Merely a failure of an apprentice. A piece of trash that he for some reason decided to give some pity.

And Sasuke wasn't the type of person to cry, at least not like this, not in public.

No, her upcoming death couldn't affect him that deeply. It had to be something else. Something he saw in Kō's memories...

Perhaps the fact that he realized who Kō was to her? The shocking realization of his terrible betrayal...?

After everything his own brother did to Sasuke, it would make some sense.

But...

The tear came out only when he used Tsukuyomi on Kō.

And the Hyūga man didn't start yelling and crying of pain the same instant when Sasuke used his jutsu on him. They talked, and since she knew how exactly Tsukuyomi worked, Hinata could say that their speech was pretty long in the illusionary world.

So Sasuke most likely reacted like this to something he heard from Kō...  
It had to be very strong and important to affect the Uchiha like this.

But what could it possibly be...?

"Hinata... collect yourself. You won't die anytime soon. This substance only works on those who possess the certain genes, it is true, but the catalyst to the reaction is chakra. Lucky you, I've drained yours nearly completely before we came here, so we've got approximately ten hours to find a way to cure you. And I think I know someone who can help. So don't give up just yet..." She frowned as he talked, the voice of the Uchiha suddenly becoming calm and full of resolve, much opposite to what it was a few saconds ago. Apparently her master knew what he was talking about, because for all she knew about him, Sasuke was anything but a delusional man.

Dropping Kō down to the floor, the Uchiha turned to Kiba who looked shocked, confused and raged at the same time, while Shino looked more intrigued than anything else.

Apparently the boy found the scene between Sasuke and Kō strange, just like Hinata, but he didn't want to say anything about it just yet.

"Now then... I'll put him under Rinnegan genjutsu, so you guys won't have to worry about him anymore. Shino is right - if we kill him now, the Hyūga clan will definitely get the information out of the two of you, even if you won't give it away willingly... and knowing with who she is, they'll be able to easily track us down, not to mention that me and Hinata will definitely be labeled nukenin for all this. We can't allow them to find out what happened here. Thanks to this bastard's actions, you now know that what Hinata said to you is true. So you'll have to return to Konoha with him." Seeing as Kiba was ready to protest, the Uchiha raised his hand, stopping the boy.

"I also realize that you want to protect her, I'd do the same for Naruto or Sakura. But... the best way of protecting Hinata right now is our teamwork. I can assure you that I care for her, and I promise that I'll do everything within my power to save her. But for what I'm going to do, you guys are of no use. However, if you return to Konoha now... under my genjutsu, this idiot right here is going to report his success in slaying Hinata, and you will confirm his words should it be necessary. This way, we'll be free from constant chasing of the Hyūga shinobi. And when it's settled, I want you to meet the Sixth and tell him, and only him, what really happened here this night. He will give you the information concerning our plan, since I have no time for it right now, but this way, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to pass through all this..." Sasuke stopped, seeing as the Inuzuka boy came closer to him, laying his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder.

"Sasuke, I... you're right, we want to protect Hinata. But... after all the shit she told us... to be honest, some part of me wants to kill you... especially after all the pain in the ass I had to suffer back when you left the village." The brown haired boy smirked, remembering that mission years ago.  
"But now... I see that Hinata and you, there is a bond between you guys, and if she trusts you now, well... I guess I have to trust you as well? Hinata always was smarter than me anyway... what I'm trying to say is..." He grabbed Sasuke's shoulders and lowered his head, quietly muttering, which was very unusual for the Inuzuka: "Please, save her. And please, knock some sense into her too kind and forgiving head... Her bastard of a father must pay. This shit has to be avenged. Even if we have no choice but to do what you told us to do now, if not anytime soon, fine... But he must pay! And she better kick his ass herself, iit will serve the bastard right!"

Hinata flinched in surprise when the Uchiha suddenly clenched Kiba's forearm, smirking.

Kiba hated Sasuke ever since the moment the Uchiha left Konoha, and Sasuke... didn't he despise people like the Inuzuka? And now they were... getting along?

Was she hallucinating because of the poison...?

"Don't worry about that. I will prepare her for it, have no doubt. By the time we return, she'll be able to hand your sorry ass to you effortlessly, Inuzuka." Her teammate smirked, not saying anything in return as Sasuke turned to Shino. "And you? Do you agree?"

The Aburame crossed his hands on his chest, leaning on the wall.

"It's good to see that you're finally back for real, Sasuke." The Uchiha boy sighed in relief, opening the door to their room. "Hinata, dress up and get your stuff, we're leaving in a minute. We can't afford wasting any more time."

She slowly nodded, moving out from her spot.

Too many strange things were happening around her, so the girl actually doubted that all of it was real.

Getting her cloak from the hanger, Hinata was absorbed by the swirl of thoughts that just didn't click in her mind.

First, Kō's betrayal. Then his strange silent conversation with Sasuke. Now Shino and Kiba basically accepted the fact that she was Sasuke's... girlfriend? But she wasn't!.. Should she tell it to them now, or would it make things only more complicated for them, taking even more time...?

It was so confusing that Hinata didn't know what to do and what to think.

Was she even going to survive this night...?

But then the sudden realization came to her along with unexpected peace.

It was all up to Sasuke now.  
Her life was in his grasp, just like it was before, just like it will be from now on and forever should his idea of curing her succeed.

And that was also why she was going to blindly trust her master now.

Because even though her family betrayed her, even if Kiba and Shino could still do it, Sasuke couldn't.

Because you can't be betrayed by the man who you don't expect to consider you a person close to him.

He was allowed to use her, to do whatever he wanted, and that included everything about her - trading her very life as well.

Even if he just handed her to Hiashi now, that wouldn't be betrayal on his part. And she partly expected him to do so, since she knew he had every reason for it, considering how weak and stupid she was, doing nothing but bringing him trouble.

Any kind of relationship, be it family, marriage, dating or friendship, implies the mutual feeling of obligation, certain sets of rights and responsibilities.

Sasuke didn't ask for anything from her, he never did. And he also didn't _need_ anything from her, of course.  
In fact, until now, all he did was only giving. He never asked nor wanted anything in return.

She, on the other hand, couldn't imagine giving him anything that he could find at least remotely useful, compared to the things he did and still was going to do for her.

That made her owe him everything.  
Simple as that.

And such relationship was perfect for her.  
She didn't have to think, to suspect, to be afraid of anything at all.

Because she was ready for everything he could do since the very beginning. She was at his mercy.

And Hinata was going to follow him until her last breath.

Getting out of the room, ready to go whenever Sasuke was heading to, she looked at the four men that stood there, quietly talking.

All of them were very calm and collected, especially Kō, who apparently was already under the effects of Sasuke's genjutsu.

"About time, Hinata. Say your goodbyes, I'll be waiting for you outside the pub. See you, guys." He waved his hand to Kiba and Shino, turning around to go downstairs.

"Yeah... take care, Sasuke." Came the uncertain reply from Kiba who was still a bit confused by the unexpected change in the relationship between their team and the Uchiha.

"Indeed. And don't worry, we'll act according to the plan." Added Shino, this followed by distant, satisfied grunting from the Uchiha.

The boys then turned their heads to the Hyūga girl.

"So... this is goodbye. At least you'll be safe..." Kiba sighed, coming closer to Hinata and hugging her tightly.

"To be safe, I need to survive first." She pointed out, smiling a bit, not wanting to argue with the Inuzuka, though.

"Hey, drop such thoughts right now! There is no way in hell this dude lets you die! You should of heard him while you were dressing up, he..."

"He made it very clear that he knows how to save you, Hinata. And I think that he really cares for you, which is very surprising considering his past and what kind of a man he is... but it's a great pleasure to see him by our side again."

 _Cared for her...?_

What on earth did he say to these two?

"Really? What made you think so?" She realized that she sounded too surprised and it could rise their suspicions, so she gave the boys a wide smile so that it would seem unclear if she was kidding or not.

And they swallowed her bait. Well, at least Kiba certainly did.

"Please... if I ever knew that our Hinata-chan would be able to make the bastard the way he is now, I would've forced you to turn your attention to him instead of Naruto much earlier - that would save us the trouble of bringing him back to the village... that moron Naruto never worshiped your kindness and caring anyway. But I wanted to ask you, how the hell did it happen? I thought your were going to confess to Naruto just before you disappeared, and now you're lovely-dovey with Sasuke...? How come?"

Uh huh. So Sasuke decided that it's a good idea to support their impression of the two of them being lovers.

She giggled, but her teammates never realized the true reason of her joy.

She was right in her assumption. She was smart enough to not fail Sasuke, at least once, at least here.

"Uh... it's complicated, Kiba-kun... I guess... uh... it just happened?" She blushed, lowering her eyes, surprised by her acting abilities deep inside. Since when she became such a calculative liar...?

But she liked it. It was like a game.

A game where she wrote the rules herself.

The Inuzuka laughed, resembling a dog barking just a bit, especially with Akamaru suddenly doing the same in unison.

"I guess girls just can't stay this bastard's charms, after all! Even you, eh... but well, I'm fine with it, as long as he loves you, too."

 _Loves her... funny._

This thought alone was ridiculous to her.

"Anyway, I guess you should go... oh, right, Shino is here, too. Wanna say anything to our dear Hinata-chan as well, bud?" He joked, turning his head to the Aburame whose face was impassive.

"Thank you for letting me do so, Kiba. How kind of you." He stepped closer to the girl, looking her in the eyes from behind his dark glasses. "I really hope that Sasuke is right. Stick close to him. Such care should be treasured, especially coming from an Uchiha."

Idiots. Both of them were utter idiots. They knew nothing, they didn't understand a thing...

They didn't know her at all, to think that they believed in this nonsense... That she could just sleep with a basically foreign man who she knew for only a few weeks...

That she could fall in love with him so fast...

At the moment, she was having a hard time fighting the displease of being near the two of them.

But she had to play it to the end.

This was nearly over anyway.

"Yes... thank you, Shino-kun. I will. I hope to see you guys again..." She gave him a wide, kind, but a bit sad smile, before coming close to Kō, kneeling down and whispering to his ear so that only her former guardian could hear her:

"I know that you can hear me clearly now, even though your mind is being controlled... I must thank you for ultimately proving my conclusion right. This family, this clan... at this point, I hate all of you. You better pray for me to not live through this... necause if I will, by the time Sasuke-san is done training me...if you ever, ever try to harm me again in any possible way..." She paused for a second, eyeing him up and down. "You monsters had ruined Neji's life; I won't allow you to do the same to me if I'll be given a chance to prevent it, make no mistake. Just dare and to give me one more reason, and you will see... I will crush you, as well as every other member of this filthy clan." He didn't visibly react to her words as Hinata got up, giving Kō's blank face the last look of despise before waving a goodbye to her teammates and turning around, following Sasuke downstairs.

He was already there, waiting for the girl just like he promised, near the entrance to the building.

"So, are you ready to go?" He suddenly asked for some reason, as if she had any choice.

"Yes. Why?"

He shrugged, striding forward to the broad street.

"I thought you might feel sentimental about meeting those three... are you feeling well?"

"Yes."

"Both physically and mentally?"

"I think so."

He turned his head to look her in the eyes, the Uchiha's expression being a little worried.

"Right... we'll talk about it later, when we get you cured."

"Why are you so sure it's even possible?" She finally asked, frowning. There were too many questions she had for Sasuke, but the girl wasn't sure if she was even allowed to ask any of them.

He smirked.

"As you could've guessed by now, I've used _Ningendō_ to get his memories. There was a very detailed description of how exactly this poison works. It's effects are stronger the purer your genes are. As an heir of your clan, considering how conservative Hyūga usually are, you're probably very pure-blooded, so normally it would kill you very fast and painfully. However, since you're nearly completely out of chakra, we have plenty of time to help you."

She still couldn't follow where he was getting at.

"Help me how, exactly?"

He gave her a surprised glance.

"To change your DNA, obviously."

Wha... what...? This didn't make any sense...

"Uh... that's it...? How is this actually possible...?"

To her further surprise and confusion, he smirked.

"It's not as hard as you think. In fact, I think it's pretty easy for the one we're going to meet soon. But it won't be an easy walk in the park for you. Should we succeed, you will still have to go through terrible pain for a while. Like I said, the poison affects you as strong as pure your blood is. Under normal circumstances, it would certainly kill any member of the Main House of your clan, but the Branch House members have a small chance to survive, even though they would most definitely get blind after being poisoned. And a half-blood would likely survive this, under guidance of a strong medic nin like Tsunade or Sakura."

She winced at the reminding of the pink haired girl. Hinata wasn't so sure if she should hide her true feelings concerning the kunoichi anymore.

"It would even affect me to some extent, since our clans are distantly related, but I'd probably only feel as if I caught a light flu or something like that. So be prepared. Consider it another part of your training... it will improve your endurance and will." Sasuke waved to a carriage driver a hundred yards away from them, asking him to stop by.

She knew that they couldn't use one of his hawks to travel right now, since they'd be too notable up in the sky for the other Hyūga shinobi that were assigned to search for her.

"What did you talk about? You and Kō, inside Tsukuyomi." She suddenly asked, peering at him searchingly.

For some reason, Sasuke flinched, clearly not expecting the question so soon.

And this reaction was the final proof for her that there was something off with their conversation.

It wasn't as simple as it seemed. Not at all.

"Not much... after I read his memories, there were things that confused me a little, so I wanted to interrogate him myself. Tsukuyomi seemed to be the best way of doing it, don't you think so?"

She nodded, reluctantly. He was clearly hiding something as the Uchiha choose the words very carefully to not reveal anything to her.

"But... if I may ask, Sasuke-san..."

"Hm?"

"Why did you cry? I've never seen you crying before."

She never saw him being embarrassed either, but the girl guessed that there was a first time for everything in their lives seeing as his cheeks reddened a tiny bit.

"He touched something personal when we talked. It's not necessary for you to know what exactly."

"Oh."

 _So this was it, huh?_ Something personal... what could it possibly be?

They waited for the carriage for a few seconds in tensed silence before he finally sighed, turning his head to Hinata and looking her in the eyes.

"It was about Itachi."

Itachi...? She wasn't aware of the fact that Kō and Sasuke's brother actually knew each other. And that had to be the case, if Sasuke was telling the truth. Otherwise, what Kō could possibly know about Itachi Uchiha...? Obviously it had to be something personal, just like her master said.

But what if he lied, after all...? What if there was something else, something important...?

 _It was irrelevant_ , she decided. She trusted him, and if Sasuke thought that it's better for her to stay oblivious to the details of their speech with Kō, it was his decision, and she's going to accept and follow it.

Which meant that it was an end of the topic.

The coachman stopped his big, beautiful and rich-looking carriage before the two of them, gazing at the pair with apparent boredom.

"So, where do you need to get? I must warn you that my service is pretty expensive."

"It's fine. We're going to the Land of Rice Fields. We'll pay you twice as more than it costs if you make haste driving us there." Sasuke said, taking a pouch of money from his pocket.

The man's eyes widened.

"What...? Are you insane, boy? Do you even know that that land is now called the Land of Sound, and is being controlled by Orochimaru the Sannin...?"

"It's fine. We're shinobi of Konoha. We will protect you should it be necessary, which I doubt, but we need to get there as fast and stealthy as possible."

The man gave him a long, thoughtful look, before finally sighing, giving them a welcoming sign with his gloved hand.

"Alright. Get in. Lucky you, my wife is from Konoha..."

The Uchiha smirked, not listening for the rest of his jabbering, opening the door of the carriage and letting Hinata get in there first.

In fact, he was rather worried for her condition. According to Kō's words, the poison shouldn't affect her at all in the next two hours, but the man might as well be wrong in his belief... that's why Sasuke preferred to keep an eye on her just in case. Without her chakra, she was just a fragile girl, and falling down, getting her head hit by the cobblestone road would certainly not help her in any way.

The carriage started going down the wide road, driving them away from Tanzaku-gai.

Both of the teens were absorbed by their thoughts, so they didn't talk much during the long travel. It was pretty usual for them anyway - both didn't like to talk much, as a matter of fact.

In approximately four hours, Hinata started to look sick, so Sasuke had to drain a bit of her regenerated chakra again to slow down the effects of the poison, even though it was going to make himself affected a little.

He never noticed it, but Hinata gave him a weird look when he did so. As if the girl was surprised that he actually decided to share her pain to make it easier for her, even though it was only a tiny piece of it.

In fact, Sasuke was now both assured and, at the same time, confused by what happened back in the town this night.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell her anything of what Kō said to him.

If she found it out now, it would ruin everything, and it would most probably kill her...

Or, to be more accurate, Sasuke doubted that she would want to live after hearing the truth. Even to him, it was shocking to say the least...

So revealing it to her wasn't an option. At least not until he finished training her.  
For now, she needed to walk the same path he himself once did.

Because talking to Kō made him realize the one thing he always overlooked.

He and her, they were very much alike.

The Uchiha now wondered what would've happened if their fates turned to be the opposite.

What if Kō was ordered to wipe their clan out when she was still a child? Would she become what he did become?

Would she be an avenger? A cold hearted murderer like he used to be?

And what if Itachi never did what he did? What if Sasuke grew up being protected and nursed by his brother? Always in his shadow? Always failing his father's expectations like he sometimes used to, especially compared to Itachi? And with his family around, which would make him nothing special since the very beginning, quite unlike the role of the sole Uchiha survivor he never became used to?

Would he be a spineless weakling like she was before they met that night a month ago?

Both were quite some possibilities, and now that he realized it, Sasuke knew that their meeting wasn't an accident.

It was fate.

He had to save this girl from herself, and now, after hearing what Kō said to him, he knew how exactly to make it.

Just like he originally intended to do with the world.

Destroy it, and then create anew.

Did it mean that Hinata was his world now...?  
Sasuke smirked at the irony of this thought.

Despite how laughable it seemed to be, in a way, she was, by being the key to redemption. She was also the way to feel what Itachi felt for him, Sasuke...  
He now understood his deceased brother better than ever before.

Considering how strong was the impact left by Kō's betrayal even on himself, reminding him of his childhood nightmare when his own beloved brother slaughtered his whole family when nothing had suggested such possibility, he could imagine what was currently going on in Hinata's head.

And with all the similarities in their past, there was no doubt that she was already on her way to the path of avenger.

Basically, the girl was the second version of himself, with the difference being that she still had a chance to avoid repeating the mistakes he did in the past.

Furthermore, before he and Naruto could start working on changing the world for real, Sasuke had to prepare himself. And focusing on this girl could show him his own flaws... his weak spots.

Fate is a strong thing, and considering that he was an incarnation of Indra, the Uchiha actually feared that his friend and brother, Ashura, was going to fail, along with the ideas of Ninshū.

Because should it happen, Sasuke knew that there would be nothing holding Indra back anymore.

If Naruto fails, he, Sasuke will become the Hokage.

His own version of Hokage.

And he didn't want this to happen. He feared it more than anything else, and to throw these thoughts away, in order to not go insane, he needed something or someone to focus on.

Fortunately, he now had his new student.

On top of that, he still had to find out the origins of the shinobi with the Uchiha crest on his neck that he killed back in Nami no Kuni.

And after that, if it was possible...

No, it was too far-fetched yet to even think about it.

For now, he had to focus on these goals.

To save Hinata. To make her strong enough to overcome what lied ahead before her.

To find the truth about the dead man.

And do make it happen, he needed to visit his old teacher.

Orochimaru.

The Uchiha now wondered what the old snake was doing at the moment. After the war the sannin, along with team Taka, told Sasuke and Naruto that they were going to lay low for a few years, doing some experiments and other stuff the Uchiha, let alone Naruto, never cared for... but they also said that since Sasuke decided to side with Konoha again, they were going to support the village, too.

But did it mean that Sasuke could rely on him when it came to healing Hinata...?

Orochimaru wasn't a medic nin, and Kabuto was in Konoha at the moment, since he still awaited the judgement for his crimes caused by Edo Tensei...

But Karin should be there, so the two of them could pull it together, of that Sasuke was pretty sure.

The question was, would they want to help them...?

But he brushed this thought away the instant it appeared.

He was Uchiha Sasuke.

If he needed something, he asked for it.

If he was denied and still needed it, he took it by force.

So if they try to object, he would just control them with his eyes. Nothing new here...

"Sasuke... I..."

He got snapped out of his thoughts, moving his gaze from the forest behind the carriage's window to the Hyūga girl.

"Huh? What is it?" He asked, worried by her current appearance.

She looked bad. Her face was pale, much paler than usual, and sweat covered her forehead, wetting the strands of the girl's hair.

On top of that, she was holding her head as if she was having a strong migraine.

"I... I think... I'm going to..." She wasn't able to finish the sentence as she puked onto the floor of the carriage, nearly falling down, but the Uchiha was fast enough to catch her.

"Come on... breath. It will be alright. We'll be there soon."

In fact, he had no idea where they were at the moment. And that was a bit of a trouble - even if he knew in which hideout Orochimaru currently stayed, it was pretty hard to find a road there, since he usually traveled directly through the deep forest, jumping from one tree to another.

"Hey, coachman! How far are we from our destination?!" He shouted, trying to not give his worries away. There was no need in letting the man know what was happening to Hinata."

"We're nearly there! Just another thirty minutes, and I think we'll be close... a mile away from Otogakure. Sorry, but I won't drive you there, I still worship my head and I have no desire of losing it anytime soon..."

Cursing, the Uchiha took Hinata onto his shoulder with his only hand and then kicked the door, jumping out.

Not listening to the yelling coachman since he left the money pouch inside, Sasuke used Amenotejikara to move as fast as he could.

Hinata was already losing conscious, so he had to hurry up.

Judging by what the man said, they were just three to five miles away from the hideout, and it was supposed to be somewhere to the south from that point.

Fortunately he turned to be right, and in just twenty minutes or so he managed to see the entrance in the cave near the small waterfall.

Rushing into the familiar dungeon, he jumped down through the stairways, only to bump into the white haired boy a few levels below the entrance, making him fall onto the cold, stone floor.

"Hey, what the fuck are you... oh, my, what brings you here at such time, Sasuke...? And who is this chick?" Suigetsu grunted in pain from falling on his bum, instantly recognizing his former teammember.

"It doesn't matter. Where is Orochimaru? I need him as soon as possible. Karin, too."

"Woah, what on earth happened...? Is she sick or something...?" The Hozuki curiously looked at Hinata who was now breathing hard, her eyes closed.

"She got poisoned. I need to save her. And the time is running out. Be quick."

Suigetsu blinked in surprise of the sudden passion in Sasuke's voice.

"Oh... I see. Alright then, go to the lowest level, and then to the left passage. Orochimaru-sama is working on some new seal there, so you will definitely find him in that hall. I will get Karin as fast as I can, I think the maniac was going to sleep last time I saw her a few hours ago... oh, by the way..."

"Later." Sasuke jumped down again, running towards the sannin's laboratory.

Hinata dangerously coughed, spilling some blood, and then started moaning in pain.

So Kō was wrong, after all. It was spreading through her system faster than the man anticipated.

But Sasuke was there, at last.

Kicking the heavy wooden doors, he entered the big, spacious and well lighted hall where his former teacher was sitting at the big, round shaped table, writing something on a few scrolls at the same time.

"Orochimaru! I need your help!"

"Sasuke-kun...?" The sannin looked surprised, clearly not expecting a visit from the Uchiha anytime soon, especially with someone accompanying him.

 _Especially_ with a female.

And certainly not with a _dying_ female that made him so unusually nervous.

"What happened?" He stood up from his spot, coming closer to the opposite side of the table where the Uchiha put the girl that started shaking, blood coming out of her eyes.

"She's a Hyūga. She got poisoned by _Saigo no Yume_ , the substance that works on genetic level. It's rapidly killing her, so I need you to change her DNA - as far as I know, doing this might cheat this thing... while Karin will be healing her as you're making that, to prevent her from dying. Can you do it?" He asked bluntly, looking in the yellow eyes of the snake sage.

Orochimaru put her his fingers on Hinata's forehead, wincing.

"Yes... I think it's possible. Are you sure it will work, though? How do you know that?"

Sasuke shook his head, raising his tone:

"It doesn't matter! It's the only thing that can work, so do the job right now!"

The sannin smiled at his former student.

"I can see she's pretty important to you... fair enough, I'll do as you please. Since she's a Hyūga, I have a certain DNA sample that might not only fit in perfectly, but potentially enhance her abilities as well... should she survive this, of course." He walked to the chest in the corner of the hall and took a test-tube with some red substance out of it, coming back to the girl. "I will have to put the Cursed Seal on on her to make it work, though. Don't worry, it can be your chakra that we'll seal into her, not mine. If you'd prefer it, of coruse. I don't fancy the idea of taking a body of a Hyūga girl anyway... perhaps you would like to do that later on?" He smirked at the reaction of Sasuke - the Uchiha looked as if he was ready to kill him right there on his spot.

The doors of the hall opened again, with Suigetsu and worried, tousled Karin running in.

"What happened, Sasuke?! Are you hurt?"

"Come here, Karin... I need your assistance in healing this girl." Orochimaru uttered, smirking.

The Uzumaki kunoichi looked at the table, confused and irritated.

"I thought Sasuke was injured... who the hell is this princess? She looks like shit..." She came closer, eyeing the Hyūga girl with apparent skepticism before snapping:

"And why would I want to heal her anyway?"


	8. Lucid Dream

**Chapter 8. Lucid Dream**

"And why would I want to heal her anyway?"

The question was actually pretty reasonable. Karin's healing abilities were rather unusual: in order to heal somebody, she had to let the person bite her to be able to receive the Uzumaki girl's potent chakra which was capable of healing one's body and restored own chakra reserves.

It was a rare occasion when she allowed somebody to do that: the person had to be really dear and important to her, or there had to be a very, very good reason to it. That's why Karin healed Sasuke this way quite a few times in their past.

The Hyūga girl, however, was a different story.

It's not that Karin had some grudge against her specifically. The black haired kunoichi just didn't appear to be in a critical condition anyway, not to mention that being awakened in the middle of the night also didn't make this situation, as well as the mood of this Uzumaki clan's offspring who was well known for her temper any better.

If it was happening a few years ago, when Sasuke was younger, he would simply threaten her to do the job, or use a genjutsu to force her.

Now, though, he was different. Even though it was still hard for him, the Uchiha already was able to see the world from another person's point of view if he tried to.

Which is why he calmed himself down instead of making any big moves, taking a deep breath and uttering:

"If you don't heal her right now, her death is inevitable. I need her alive. It's crucial for my plans, so you and Orochimaru must save her."

He still wasn't going to _ask_. The snake sannin owed him too much for being revived and spared after the war, and Karin, well... even though the way he treated her during his fight against Danzo wasn't too polite and gentle, it still served her right after years of stalking and trying to make him sleep with her multiple times. _And she managed to survive that, after all, didn't she...? No problem here at all._

"Inevitable...? Is she a jinchūriki? We can't help her if this is the case, Sasu..."

"Karin, I'm afraid we don't have much time to talk right now." Orochimaru snapped, interrupting her and suddenly becoming serious. "Come here and start healing the child, we'll be able to chat about everything later." He ordered, unbuttoning Hinata's cloak with his left hand, while the white fingers of his right arm flashed with blue chakra. The girl obeyed, sighing in defeat and coming closer to them.

"Sasuke-kun... I'll be needing to have direct access to her heart, so you might want to turn away if you haven't seen the girl naked before. Not to mention that the show of cutting through her chest can be pretty disturbing to watch. Although..." He turned to his red haired assistant, smirking. "Knowing your tastes, you might even like it."

"Hn." The Uchiha didn't reply anything, silently putting his right arm in the pocket of his coat and staring at Hinata's pained face.

He nearly missed his old master's sense of humor and his vile jokes. And Karin obviously didn't follow the last one, being too busy with preparing her jutsu.

At least it was a bit of relief to him, this sudden nostalgic feeling.

As well as the view of Hinata's exposed beautiful breasts when Orochimaru has torn her shirt apart, which made the boy's heart begin beating even faster. Fortunately the other two in the room were too occupied to notice him slightly blushing.

But the pleasant picture didn't last for too long. Just like a perfect scalpel, the fingers of the snake sannin cut through the middle of the girl's chest, his left hand forming a few signs while his right palm made it's way to the girl's heart.

"Karin, start it right now."

"Sure, sure..." She mumbled in response, hitting a certain spot on the Hyūga's neck, thus making Hinata reflexively bite her hand, and starting to heal the dying girl as she was ordered to.

After a few seconds of some manipulations with chakra that were foreign to the Uchiha, Orochimaru suddenly frowned a little.

"Sasuke-kun... it's actually worse than you originally thought. If you came here a few minutes later, she would indeed definitely die."

The boy's brow twitched. This was most certainly a valuable piece of information, especially at this tense moment. As if he wasn't feeling bad enough without it...

"Well?" He snapped, glancing at his former master.

Orochimaru smiled, pulling the test-tube's cork out with his thumb.

"Fortunately enough, I know what exactly she's been poisoned with. If anything, I had invented this thing myself about twenty years ago - certain people from the highest echelons of Konoha ordered it... though I'm pretty sure that you've already figured out who exactly did."

The Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise and shock.

It all suddenly began to made sense to him.

Just like Danzo, and probably like many of the other major figures in Konoha, Hiashi remained in close contact with Orochimaru after his former sensei had left the village.

So that's why _he_...

"But you are correct. I know what needs to be done to save her, and we will absolutely make it... with a bit of your help. Basically, you already know that the substance itself works only on people with certain sets of genes. You've drained her chakra out, which was a brilliant decision on your part - you might not notice it yourself yet, but you're currently under it's effects as well. It made you a little emotionally unstable, and it will also make you feel sick shortly. But your life is not in any danger, unlike hers."

So that's why he became so nervous and felt so uneasy all of sudden...? It explained a lot; without being able to stay cool and collected as usual, Sasuke felt extremely uncomfortable, and it only strengthened the irritating effect.

"As you also well know, I've been venturing into the mystery of the Sage of the Six Paths through my whole life... and I came to the conclusion that, despite what the legends say about the man, he wasn't the origin of all chakra, and neither was the jūbi. The progenitor's abilities and genes were divided in different proportions among his or her ancestors... one of them being the Sage himself. But I'm sure that you already know this." He spilled the contents of the test-tube into the cut in Hinata's chest, handing the empty vial to Sasuke and weaving a few signs with his free hand again.

"But there were more than the Sage, Uchiha and Senju. Although these clans are known to be the strongest ones in the world, Hyūga are the descendants, too, as well as the now dead bloodlines... which are of no importance anymore. Basically... originally this poison was invented to take the rogue Main House Hyūga down without having much trouble, since only the most exceptional ones of them were able to escape the clan, with all their secrecy. Which is why I tried to make it work in a specific way - for the Hyūga genes to have the highest priority in extermination, higher than those of any other bloodline that roots from the progenitor. But that would be impossible to completely negate the effects it could cause if used on those who possess the Uchiha or Senju blood, since all of you are distant relatives, no matter what. But, simplifying it, the less Hyūga blood you have in your veins, the less it hurts. Still... " He smirked. "I think I could be proud of the fact that I've created something that could potentially weaken or even kill the one who gave birth to the Sage of the Six Paths no less."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, hearing the sannin's words.  
So the said progenitor was obviously Kaguya. Considering that she had the Byakugan, and Hagoromo didn't inherit it, it was probably Hamura who was born with those eyes, as well as the said "other bloodlines". And just like the Uchiha began with Indra, the Hyūga must be the descendants of Hamura's child. The real question wasn't about the other bloodlines, but... considering what Hagoromo told him when Sasuke was on the brink of death, and Hamura, as well as his clan, went to the moon to protect Kaguya's shell, how did his heirs end up living on Earth?

And then this wonderful invention of Orochimaru that came up in the most unsuitable moment possible...

He sighed in the irony.

If only they had this poison back when they fought Kaguya... it would probably make it much less of a trouble for Team Seven.  
Orochimaru was truly a genius in his own way, just like the other two of the sannin... and just like Itachi always taught the Uchiha, everyone and everything had a weakness, no matter how strong they seemed. Even someone like Kaguya.

But, of course, once they had sealed Kaguya, they've decided to not mention her existence to anyone in their world. Such knowledge could and most likely would lead to another catastrophe in future. That's why for everyone aside from the four of them and the bijū, the war ended with Madara's downfall.

Yet still, Orochimaru was able to get so far in his assumptions that he now was dangerously close to discovering the truth on his own...

But Sasuke wasn't going to open this secret to his former master no matter what, especially knowing the man's twisted passion for knowledge and power. And if he figured it out himself... he'd need to be dealt with.

Deep in these grim thoughts, Sasuke lowered his eyes to the vial in his hand for a moment, looking at the accurately written inscription on it.  
The Uchiha gasped, seeing the familiar name.

"It... it's _his_...!"

So this was what he planned to do with Hinata...?  
But it never worked with anyone before, what made this madman think it was possible now? Was it her Byakugan? Or something else...?

Sasuke felt a bit confused, but something in the corner of his mind told him that he has just handed the sannin a perfect opportunity to complete one of the experiments he craved to do in the past, when the Uchiha was still his student.

Orochimaru smiled again, nodding.

"His, indeed. I told you, this is going to enhance her abilities in future. In a way, you could compare it to what Madara did after his fight against the Shodai Hokage. Just like the DNA of Hashirama who was able to awaken the unique kekkei genkai increases the power and endurance of Sharingan, these cells will empower her Byakugan, too, and it might as well give her quite a few new abilities. If she wasn't a Hyūga, it would either do nothing at all or simply kill her, but... the effect may also be entirely different from our expectations, we can never know what exactly is going to happen when we combine these pieces together. I'm pretty excited to see it myself, to be honest, and we don't have any other choice anyway. Now, come here." Sasuke took a step closer, looking at Hinata's deathly pale face.

"Since you possess the Rinnegan now, it is clear that you've received a piece of power of the Sage, so your chakra is going to be our trump card here, and it will work even better than mine when we put the seal on her. Combined with this DNA sample that's now rapidly adapting to her own genes, it will make the molecules merge faster, and, as I've just explained it to you, it will force the poison to consider her cells belonging to someone from a different bloodline, which is more than enough for her to survive until it gets out of her system. Furthemore, it will make her body develop immunity, so it won't affect her should she ever be poisoned again. Same goes for you, of course." He stepped aside from Hinata, freeing the space near the table. "Now, use your left eye's ability on me - focus on the specific memory of how the required Cursed Seal is being performed, and then do it right away." The Uchiha did as he was told, distantly realizing as he came close to Hinata and channeled his chakra into his teeth that the legend about the Rinnegan granting it's owner the ability to learn every jutsu in the world was probably a reference to the Human Path.

"You will have to bite her neck or any other spot you find suitable, and then make your chakra flow inside her body; the only requirement for this is that the seal must be put on the skin directly above a tenketsu point, otherwise it's not going to work... and one more thing. Avoid giving her own chakra back for now – it could accidently kill her." He stepped aside, making a welcoming sign. "Whenever you're ready, Sasuke-kun."

He gave the sannin a nod full of resolve, although he still felt way too nervous for something that simple. Was it the effect of the tainted chakra flowing through his own system, or did the thought of biting Hinata's neck really excite him that much? Especially after the image of her splendid chest was already burned into his mind thanks to the Sharingan...

"You better hurry up, Sasuke! I don't have tons of energy to stay here the whole night, you know!" Karin blurted, and the Uchiha quickly bowed down. Waving the strands of Hinata's now wet and messy hair away, he touched his student's thin neck with his lips. Her skin was really soft and pleasant to...

What in the burning hell he was thinking about?! He had to save her life!

The Uchiha vigorously bit the girl, the taste of her blood on his tongue making it a little... disturbing to the teen. And her sudden gasp with the following deep sigh didn't make it any better for the raven haired boy.

Why was he thinking of her this way all of sudden?  
Sure, through his whole life, his head and heart were always too busy with different things - first, his brother, next, his revenge to Konoha, and then the war... and finally it's consequences.

It's not that Sasuke didn't appreciate good looking women... just like any other boy of his age, he did, but he always had more important things lying ahead of him that needed to be handled. He simply didn't consider himself being born for romantic stuff. And, come to think of it, it was a rare occasion for him to meet a female that he could consider worthy of his attention, the vast army of his fan girls obviously not included in this count.

Of course, ever since the years in the academy, he knew that one day he'd have to revive his clan, and, of course, he knew how exactly it's supposed to be done. But back then, it seemed to be so far away in future... a future he could possibly not live up to.

Considering how disciplined and purposeful he was, Sasuke never actually thought of any girl in _that_ way.

Until now, which was nearly driving him crazy.

Was that how this poison was supposed to work anyway...? To mess with his head?

He'd easily prefer to suffer even extremely strong physical pain rather than this uncomfortable realization in a situation like this, with irritated Karin and smirking Orochimaru nearby.

"Now, now, Sasuke-kun... don't get too carried away. You've already finished your job, now back off and let us patch your girl for good. She will live now, there is nothing for you to worry about anymore. You can enjoy her young body later on when she's awake, doing it until then is not too polite, after all."

He nearly jumped away in embarrassment without even looking at the strange pattern of the seal that formed on Hinata's neck and which looked much unlike the one he had in the past, and, keeping his usual calm and emotionless face, turned around.

"I need some rest now. Finish the job and meet me afterwards, Orochimaru. We need to talk."

He walked out of the hall, the thoughtful gaze of Karin who didn't dare to interrupt her two superiors following his back.

Passing through the heavy wooden doors, the Uchiha walked the tunnel for a few minutes before finally stopping and slamming his fist into the yellow, patterned brick in the wall, making it crack under his sudden blow. The teen clenched his teeth, moaning in frustration and leaning against the now damaged surface.

What on earth was happening to him...?  
It was so unlike his usual personality, and well... so incredibly weird. It was also nearly scaring. Not the feeling itself, but his lack of experience and knowledge, and hence the inability to come up with a plan, a solution to this problem.

But then again, come to think of it rationally, he hasn't slept for nearly three full days by now, and he also had that dire chakra affecting him more and more with each minute passing, not to mention his bloody hormones that decided to start raging in such ridiculous situation all of sudden.

He probably just needed a good sleep. Yes, that had to be it.

He slid down the wall, lying onto the floor and using his only arm as a pillow.

Orochimaru was right - he was feeling sick, even physically now. The lack of rest along with the corrupted chakra made the reality seem more like some lucid dream for him.

The last thing he reminded himself of before falling into the abyss of nightmares was that he still needed Orochimaru to have a private talk with him afterwards.

There was a reason aside from Hinata why he came to this hideout.

And it was far more important than the Hyūga girl.

* * *

She didn't know how many hours, days or months she spent in the nightmare that devoured Hinata shortly after Sasuke grabbed her and put on his shoulder like a sack of some vegetables.

First, when the darkness embraced the girl, she believed that death finally came for her, and this was hell.

And such thought was only natural - the pain she suffered was impossible to describe.

But then, after what seemed like a few days of unstoppable torture, she started adapting to it, the images she began to notice in the dark void around her diverting Hinata's attention from her physical sensations.

In the beginning, there were just some small, unconnected fragments, mere shards of her past life from the very childhood and to the war. It looked like some slide show that she witnessed just like people in the stories she heard many times - those who went through near death experience and managed to survive usually told that they were watching their whole life passing before their eyes within what they assumed to be their last seconds in this world.

But then they started to be more focused, more specific and concrete.

And watching it like some sort of a movie gave her the understanding of things she never even payed any attention to.

The girl realized that she, in fact, never had any real friends. Sure, there were Kiba and Shino, but truth to be told, those two were the best mates, while she always stood a bit aside from them. Always the special female teammate they needed to protect.

She was a burden to them.

Yet still, they were the only ones who she could at least remotely call her friends until recently. They actually interacted, chatted, spent some time together, had fun. And the fact that she was never close enough with either of them couldn't take it away.

But aside from them, she had nobody at all.

Her so-called sensei? As a matter of fact, Kurenai barely taught her anything aside from the basics that every decent genin knew anyway, and, being completely honest, the woman was never that good of a kunoichi. The role of mother that she took a year ago suited her much better, and that was respectable enough - especially from Hinata's point of view, since she could barely remember her own mother, so in her opinion, taking care of a child was a very important thing.  
They were never close, either. Of course, the now former jōnin was always nice to her students, but Hinata lately realized that kindness and gentleness were of little to no importance in their world.

Hanabi, she despised her older sister. Ever since their childhood, even though they were somehow getting along in the last few years, it was still fairly obvious. Now, she was going to take the role of the head of the clan, and Hinata had no doubt that her younger sibling wouldn't cancel her father's orders on taking her down once she acquired the position of leadership.

Hiashi... there wasn't much to tell about him. She was a disgrace to her father, as well as for her whole clan. Of course, she understood his every decision, and, even though it still hurt her quite a lot, she held no grudge in her heart for him specifically. Sure, she deeply hated her whole twisted and corrupted clan by now, but her father was merely a cogwheel in this disgusting system that needed to be either changed completely or destroyed permanently.

Kō... he, on the other hand, seemed to be the only one from the clan who always deeply loved her. Watching through all the moments they shared together, ever since she was a toddler, Hinata never noticed any ill intent coming from him.  
Which only made his betrayal even more sinister, seeing as even this man was disappointed in her enough to agree to kill the girl in the end. And he did it with apparent pleasure in his eyes...  
His betrayal was the final drop in the sea of emotions that she kept hidden from everyone for so many years. They were overwhelming her now, and only when Hinata was on the threshold of the afterlife, she was able to finally understand herself, to realize who she really was.

And no matter how strongly she desired to make him pay... even though back then she was still going to do it one day, she spared his life in the hotel because he made her realize a very important thing. What he did helped her understand that there was no love in their world.

No light, no hope, no happy endings.

Not for a ninja.

Come to think about it, since the very beginning they were taught that their whole existence was merely about being a tool. A tool that had to either do the job it was payed for, or to die trying.  
Yes, it was that simple. There was nothing else.

Aside from loyalty.

And Neji was the prime example here. He died for her because he was loyal enough to sacrifice his life to prolong her own pitiful existence, because this was what he believed he was born to do. It was his debt. He was her loyal brother from the Branch House, and the Branch House always served to protect the Main Hose, they had no other purpose.

Simple as that.

And her love for him, every single emotion she felt for the now dead boy, they were truthful, yet still irrelevant. Not in their world, not in this clan. Not when both of them were ninjas.

Which is why she was going to bury her feelings for good, finally getting over his death.

No matter how you look at it, he died a more than decent death, serving the purpose that was given to him by fate itself until the very end.

She will always honor him for that.

And then...

And then there was Naruto.

The girl barely managed to hold an ironic smirk.

She now also understood how delusional she was before. His image, his strong character always inspired her to dream.  
To dream of becoming strong. To dream of a happy life. To dream that one day, she would be powerful and courageous enough to pass through all the obstacles on the way to her own distant dreams and goals, just like he always did.

Hinata wanted to become his equal, and she always mistook it for the desire to actually be with him.

For loving him.

Which was false, she finally realized. Despite watching him so closely for so many years, the Hyūga girl still barely knew the boy, and she most certainly didn't understand what was going deep down in his soul.

But it was his fate to make his dreams come true. Not hers.

She was too much different from him to be able to walk the same path, it was never possible to begin with.

That's why she always failed. She was such a fool.

Because she lived in an illusionary, nonexistent world.

And this was the point where _he_ had come.

Uchiha Sasuke. The man that gave her a second birth. The one who fate itself brought her to. The one who helped her to stay strong and to finally find her real self under all the shells and veils Hinata covered herself with through her whole life.

He was truly her everything now, and the only true regret she still had was her death, because she couldn't serve him any longer. Couldn't make him proud. Couldn't become _his_ loyal tool. Couldn't at least repay him for everything he did for her, for giving her a purpose and for becoming it at the same time.

She couldn't stay with him...

And if by some incredible, impossible miracle she would manage to get out of this hell, she was sure of two things.

First, she belonged to him.

And second, her clan was going to pay. To pay for everything they did to her, to Neji, to all the Branch House members who died a pointless death, protecting their worthless, filthy lives.

There would be nothing but Uchiha Sasuke and her revenge in her life anymore.

And just as the Hyūga girl realized this simple truth, the visions of her past were gone.

But then she gasped, because in the seemingly endless darkness, a mysterious figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere just before her.

It was a boy, or rather a man who looked a few years older than her. His dark, long hair was cut short on top, with two locks wrapped in bandages, framing either side of his face. He wore a high-collared, white kimono held closed by a dark sash. The collar of the kimono was adorned with magatama. He also wore a black full-bodied suit underneath. His eyebrows were cut short — a symbol of his nobility — and his eyes had blue markings around them, which were turned up at the corners.

And the eyes themselves...

It was the Sharingan.

Hinata began trembling, because she now realized that he resembled the man from her past nightmares.

Uchiha Madara.

Yet at the same time...

He appeared much like Sasuke, too.

If anything, both of them looked pretty similar to this man that was now gazing at her with a curious, yet a bit bored expression.

Who on earth was he...? Why was she seeing him? The girl was absolutely sure that she'd never seen him before.

But then he started to disappear, and at the same moment, she felt a wave strong, cold, yet burning at the same time chakra spreading from her neck through her body, calming down the pain completely.

And then there was nothing else but complete darkness.

But she most certainly felt someone's blood in her mouth, and her teeth were... biting flesh?

Hinata's eyes snapped open, someone's limb leaving her mouth the same second, followed by hard cough of hers.

"Sh-h-h, easy... about damn time, for fuck's sake. How are you feeling? Can you see me?" A female voice asked, making Hinata wipe her eyes that were stained with gore and tears with her hands which were barely able to move, as if lead was flowing through them instead of blood.

"Y-yes... I think I can..." The Hyūga hissed, her voice not obeying her will at the moment. She tried focus her eyes on the blurry image of the pretty girl with glasses, that was dressed in a set of blue pajamas, her long, wild red hair looking quite messy, as if she hasn't brushed it for at least a week.

The girl nodded, opening Hinata's eyelids wider with her fingers and checking her eyes carefully.

"Fine... I guess we've managed to patch you after all. Sasuke will have to be pleased when he finds out... Orochimaru-sama even managed to save your eyes. Incredible..."

Sasuke? And... Orochimaru?!

The Hyūga was now sure that she actually somehow managed to survive the poison.

Exactly as the Uchiha promised... he saved her again.

It made her heart fill with warmth that she didn't to be there anymore, yet despite everything she realized in her... dreams? Hallucinations...?  
She decided to leave it be for now.  
There were far more important things for her to think about at the moment.

"Where am I? Is this... Orochimaru's hideout? Did Sasuke-san bring me here?"

The other girl nodded, finally sitting back to the chair near the couch where Hinata was lying, and, putting one leg on the other, she leaned against the backrest, sighing deeply.

"Yeah, something like that... but who are you, actually? Sasuke seemed to be pretty worried about your well being, so..."

"Where is he now?" Hinata interrupted her, eying her strange nurse with impudence.

The girl winced and shrugged, looking up at the ceiling.

"He said he was going to have some rest while we were finishing saving your life... he spent quite some amount of chakra on this seal on your neck, without which we would likely fail. Makes me wonder what's so special about you for him to be so concerned about your life. I've never seen him like that before. But you still haven't answered my question, and it's not quite polite of you, considering that without me nursing you the whole night you would most likely die here."

Worried...? The seal...?!

Hinata instantly felt the itching on the right side of her neck, reflexively touching it with her numb fingers.

There was some strong chakra, and it was quite familiar, too. Where did she meet it before...?

"So?" The red haired girl finally snapped, losing her patience with the weird Hyūga who didn't seem to appreciate her efforts of being friendly.

"I'm his apprentice... and servant. I'm not aware why he decided to do so much to save me, really. I'm nothing special."

The girl with glasses scratched her chin thoughtfully, peering at Hinata.

"Nothing special, you say...? Well, I doubt it. It's unlike Sasuke to care for someone who is not very dear to him. Perhaps..." She smirked devilishly, tapping the Hyūga's arm with her forefinger. "Perhaps he likes you? It would make some sense at least."

Sasuke? Likes? Her? Was this girl totally nuts...?

"I don't think so, healer-san. Perhaps he just has some plans for me of which I'm not aware yet."

Yes, that certainly seemed more like the truth to her.

"Yeah, could be... anyway, it's Sasuke's business, and I don't wanna meddle into it unless he lets me in himself. Even though we were teammates in the past, I spent some time thinking, and well, I've decided that he's a smart boy, and he's also strong enough to be able to handle everything without our aid – and he knows where to come if he needs us. Plus, anyway, it's impossible to get to his heart if he himself doesn't want it, so the best thing I can do is to just wait for him to make his decisions, no matter what they are. Anything else doesn't work with him, so I guess I'm fine with whatever he comes up with..."

Teammates...? Pinkish red hair... his heart...?

Sakura...?!

Was she still hallucinating because of the poison?

"Um, excuse me... I still don't know your name..." Hinata asked carefully, afraid to hear the confirmation of her worries since she still couldn't see clearly.

"Eh?" The girl seemed to be a bit displeased by another sudden interruption of her seemingly endless monologue, yet still she decided that Hinata had a point there, so, fixing the glasses on her nose, she uttered with an expression filled with importance:

"The name of your savior is Karin. Uzumaki Karin. And, well, Orochimaru-sama and Sasuke were useful, too, but you should remember me, girl!"

Uzumaki...? So she was one of the leftovers of the formerly famous clan, legacy of which was still praised in Konoha, and she was also a relative of Naruto.  
Hinata now remembered the name, since Sasuke mentioned her along with the other members of Team Taka one day.

According to his words, this girl was a weirdo with her own moments, but she was actually pretty nice... and well, could Hinata really call another girl weird considering who she herself was...?

The Hyūga smiled with the corners of her mouth, nodding her head in appreciation.

"Thank you, Karin-san. I will remember it for sure."

"Karin is just fine, no need to be so formal! And what's your name, by the way?"

The black haired girl smirked, looking in her healer's cheerful eyes.

"My name is Hinata."

* * *

It was a pretty rash assumption on Sasuke's part that sleep would save him from everything that was ravaging his mind that night. Of course, he had little to no choice there - the Uchiha was far too exhausted to stay up any longer, the fact that he didn't even bother to find himself a room and decided to fall asleep right in the tunnel speaking for himself, yet still he didn't expect it to be _that_ bad.

The unfamiliar feeling of desire for Hinata's body was gone, at least for the time being.

Instead, he was seeing visions which attempted to place seeds of doubt about different things into his heart, including his new student.

And he hated hesitance, especially his own.

He was Uchiha Sasuke, after all.

He never wavered, and he most certainly wasn't going to start doing it now.

That's why his dreams or visions, whatever they were... they only irritated him, spoiling the man's rest, but they weren't able to get under his skin.

If anything, at some point, he began feeling the increasing boredom, watching for the hundredth time those memories of Itachi which his revived brother shared with him before he left Sasuke in Kabuto's cave, and this was when the Uchiha decided that it had to be stopped.

And just as he activated his Sharingan within another dream, the reality around him began shattering into small pieces, leaving nothing but shining dust that was blown away by his will.

Nothing and nobody was allowed to mess with his mind.

And certainly not some drug made by Orochimaru, even though a very strong one.  
He was past this stuff long ago, during his own training with the sannin, being his test subject for quite a while.

Opening his eyes, the Uchiha found himself in a rather comfortable bed, peering at the dark ceiling of the unfamiliar room.

"I see you're finally awake. Welcome back, Sasuke." A calm voice to his left greeted him, making the Uchiha give a barely visible smirk in response.

"Did you get me here, Jūgo?" He asked, yawning.

"Yes, I did. I assumed that it's not too healthy to sleep on the floor of the cold passage, you could've caught a cold."

"Ha-ha... very funny." He sat up, trying to stretch his stiff body. "How long I was out?"

The orange haired man that stood near the entrance of the room, leaning against the wall, shrugged.

"A few hours, I guess. Suigetsu came here to visit you, but then Orochimaru-sama called him for some aid. I think they should be here soon enough."

"Great..." He yawned again, getting up from the bed. He found himself almost completely undressed, wearing only his pants at the moment. "How is Hinata?"

Jūgo blinked in slight confusion, not realizing first who Sasuke was talking about.

"The girl you brought here?"

"Yeah."

"She's alright, as far as I know. Karin is staying with her to provide the necessary support." His voice was calm and indifferent, as usual.

Sasuke nodded, picking his shirt up from the bedside table.

"Good. I hope she gets up as soon as possible. We don't have much free time."

"Leaving us too soon, Sasuke-kun?" The familiar mocking voice asked as Orochimaru entered the room along with the white haired boy who looked tired and displeased with something.

The Uchiha nodded again, buttoning the shirt.

"Yeah. But I need you to do something for me first."

"My, didn't I already do something for you tonight? You could at least give some rest to your old sensei, Sasuke-kun..."

The Uchiha smirked, putting his dark coat on.

"Don't worry. It won't take long. I just want to ask a few questions, and then to revive a certain man who I must interrogate."

"Oh?" The sannin now looked intrigued, finally becoming more serious. "What's this about?"

The Uchiha walked towards the doorway, getting out of the room and making a sign for the others to follow him.

"I've found a guy, some Kiri nin that had the Uchiha crest on his skin. Do you know what that could be?"

Orochimaru was silent for a few seconds, thinking, before slightly shaking his head.

"Could be anything, really. There were a lot of Uchiha admirers before the clan had been purged. Why didn't you ask him yourself?"

 _Yeah, and you were one of those admirers, weren't you?_

"I had to kill him before I was able to interrogate the man. I decided that you should revive him so I can do it. I've got his blood sample."

"Oh...? And who will be sacrificed for the jutsu?"

"Aoda holds him captive. That's why I need some space to summon him."

"Then we should go this way." The four of them turned to the left, entering a huge, empty hall a few seconds later.

Sasuke then bit his thumb, slamming his palm onto the floor of the accommodation.

" _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_ " The large, dark blue snake appeared in the middle of the hall, bowing it's head down in respect.

"Sasuke-sama, Orochimaru-sama. I'm at your service."

The sannin smirked, cocking his head to the right.

"Long time no see, Aoda-chan... you grew pretty big, didn't you?" If Sasuke knew less about these snakes, he would've thought that Aoda was a little embarrassed by his words.

"Aoda... is the man I asked you to keep a few weeks ago still alive?"

"Yes, Sasuke-sama. Here he is..." The snake opened it's maw, the long, forked tongue unrolling and thus making the unconscious Gatō who was covered with slime fall down to the floor.

The Uchiha nodded approvingly, coming closer to the man who looked barely alive.

"Good job. Orochimaru, you can begin." He handed his former teacher the scroll that contained the sealed blood and stepped away.

The sannin smirked, shaking his head a bit and looking at the the piece of paper that Sasuke gave him.

"So bossy nowadays, huh... fine..." He came closer to the man who he didn't recognize, which meant that he was an irrelevant civilian, and waved a few hand signs, preparing his technique.

" _Edo Tensei no Jutsu!_ " Gatō suddenly awakened, screaming in horrible pain and fear for the last time in his life as his body was being covered with pieces of impure snippets of the shinobi who Sasuke killed in Nami no Kuni.

"Wha... shat...? Where am I...?"

The Uchiha came closer to the revived man with a calm and collected expression that didn't give away any emotions.

"It doesn't matter right now. You've been summoned to this world from the afterlife. My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm the one who killed you in the Land of Waves."

The man's distinctive black eyes snapped open in fear and anger, apparently recognizing Sasuke.

"What... you killed me?! You're the one who came to save that bitch back then... wait. What did you say? An Uchiha...?"

The teen's visible eye flashed with red as he activated the Sharingan.

"Yeah. Make no mistake - you are under my control, and you will be brought back to where you were summoned from once I'm done with you. So I recommend you to not waste any time, for the sake of both of us. Your task is simple - answer my questions, don't ask any. Is it clear?"

The shinobi clenched his teeth, though nodding in agreement a second later.

"Good. Now, tell me, are you an Uchiha?"

He hesitated for a few seconds before uttering:

"No."

"What's your name?"

"Kaji."

"Why do you have that mark on your nape?"

"My father put it there back when I was a kid."

"Why?"

"Because it's a mark of his clan."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed suspeciously.

"But you said you're not an Uchiha. Yet your father was one?"

"Yes."

"That makes you adopted." It made sense now.

"Correct. The mark was put on me so that I have something to prove my name and my allegiance to him, since I don't have the bloodline."

"How come an Uchiha adopted you?"

The shinobi shrugged indifferently.

"He always said that he was on a special mission, but I suspect he was an outcast. He found me in a camp of some thugs - I was supposed to be their slave, but he saved me. We lived on the ruins of a village that's been destroyed shortly before he found me, and he was the only Uchiha who lived a life of a hermit as far as I know. During one of our rare travels together, we've been ambushed and got separated, so shinobi of Kiri captured me. They held me in their village for a few years before I agreed to work for them. It was better than dying or being a slave, you know. But I've never seen dad again after that."

Sasuke frowned, hearing the man's story. An outcast? He never thought that there could be outcasts from his clan. Was there any chance that they were still alive, at least some of them? At least this man? Or did Itachi find and kill them as well during his years in Akatsuki? That was a good question.

"Do you think he's still alive?"

The man shrugged again.

"May be. But if he is, then he's pretty old by now. Fifty-something, I think."

"That doesn't necessarily mean that he's old, though." Orochimaru smirked, reminding them of his presence.

But Sasuke ignored his comment, focusing on the man before himself.

"Where is that village where you lived back then?"

"Not too far away from the place where you killed me. That village was named Uzushiogakure..."

Uzushio? The village of Karin and Naruto's clan, then...?

"...but if you decide to go there and search for my old man, don't bother. I tried to, and he wasn't there. Plus, there are quite a few traps that we've set around our home, so it's unsafe to enter there, even for me – I don't remember the place that well after so many years."

Sasuke nodded, thinking over the information he received.

If there was at least one outcast who could still be alive, he had to look for him. But what was more important... there could be more of them spread around the world. And this man's adoptive father certainly could know more. He needed to find him, or at least his traces. It was the keystone to his finally determined goal.

He had to look for other possible survivors of his clan, and they needed to be brought back to Konoha to help him revive the said clan.

Sasuke was no fool - he realized that making it on his own wasn't a trivial task. It would force him to use one of a few ways, each of them being pretty doubtful.

He could get himself a wife – that would be pretty easy, and he could've already done that with Sakura, for example, who was a pretty strong kunoichi, not to mention that she, of that he was sure, would gladly agree to do it for him. But how many children could she produce? Three? Four? Even if it was ten, they would still be merely a bunch of children. Too vulnerable to assume that it would be enough to ensure the survival of the clan no matter what, considering the amount of people in the world who still hated the Uchiha name. So this way wasn't too secure to say the least.

Then again, he could get himself like a dozen of wives and produce a hundred of children in order to make an amount big enough so that at least some of them would definitely survive in their world that was still very dangerous, and this would probably work pretty well, but no law would allow it in any of the civilized countries and their Hidden Villages, especially in Konoha. And he wanted his clan to stay in the village no matter what, so that idea was pure idiocy. Not to mention that it wasn't to his tastes.

But there could be another way, and judging by what he's just heard, Sasuke could now see a great opportunity.

With him being the only mature male in the clan, his death would likely mean the end of the Uchiha even if he managed to impregnate somebody now. Considering how small were the chances of survival even for a few children, there was a strong possibility that a single child wouldn't even live long enough to become mature.

In other words, he was the weak link, and he would be one in either way he considered for his plans.

But if there were more mature Uchiha who were able to produce posterity, the chances of the bloodline's survival and the following revival of the clan increased significantly.

That's what he thought back in the dungeon where he killed this man that was now standing before him, brought back from the world of dead.

And if there was a chance to find at least one more man who had the genes of Uchiha, even if he was weak or wasn't shinobi at all, he had to do everything within his power to make it. After all, there had to be some of them. Perhaps some of the Uchiha were banished from the clan and the village. Some of them could've become nukenin, some female members could marry outsider... come to think of it, there were so many different possibilities here, so there definitely had to be some of them still alive, but searching those people without any trace leading to them would be even worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.

That's why the information he got from this dead man was truly priceless, and, for the first time in weeks, it made him sincerely smile.

"Fine. Thank you for telling me this. Not gonna say that I'm sorry for killing you, since you deserved it by attacking my apprentice... but you're forgiven now. Orochimaru, you can take him away."

The sannin nodded, not giving any signs to show if he realized what Sasuke was now thinking or not.

"Would you mind if I add him to my arsenal?"

Sasuke shrugged, turning away from the shinobi who looked angered yet didn't say anything, probably realizing that it would be pointless considering all the circumstances.

"Suit yourself."

The sannin smirked, weaving a few hand signs; a huge wooden coffin appeared behind the Kiri nin, capturing his artificial body and disappearing underground a moment later.

And just as it did, the big doors opened, Karin and Hinata entering the hall.

"It's done, Orochimaru-sama, Sasuke. She's fine and well now, even better than before."

"Wow, Karin... you really look like shit, you know?" Suigetsu uttered, ponting at the girl's hair.

She roared and grabbed his collar, raising her hand as if she was preparing to strike him.

"Shut up, you moron! You weren't the one who had to spend the while night healing the dying girl!"

"No, that's not it... I meant that you look just as usual." He barely managed to finish his sentence as her fist met his face, making the boy's head blow into a splash of water, his body falling, or rather flowing down to the floor and reforming a second later. "Wow, you really are mad now..." He mumbled, giggling in amusement at her rage.

"Hinata, how are you feeling now?" Sasuke asked, holding his smirk as he watched the scene that his old teammates gave them.

The girl bowed her head, quietly uttering:

"I'm perfectly fine, Sasuke-san."

He nodded.

"Good. We'll be departing right now then, Orochimaru."

The sannin smiled.

"And here I thought we'll be having a nostalgic chat with tea and sweets... well, fine then. But I advise you two to come back in a few months so I can check the Hyūga's condition."

"Yeah, alright. See you, guys." The Uchiha noticed the displeased glance that Hinata shot at Orochimaru as he called the girl by her clan's name, yet he decided to ignore it for now, walking towards the doorway instead without looking at his former teammates. "Come, Hinata."

"Um, Sasuke-san..."

He stopped, turning back and gazing at her, confused.

"What is it?"

She looked him in the eyes with unusual resolve and assertiveness.

"I think you forgot what you promised to me before we came here."

Oh. Right. That...

So she wanted it that badly? The girl was clearly becoming better with each day passing... that was a pleasure for him to notice.

"Right. I almost forgot indeed. Orochimaru." He turned to the sannin who looked a bit surprised by the sudden exchange of words between Sasuke and his former student's new apprentice.

"Hm?"

Sasuke smirked, looking at Aoda who was still waiting for his masters' orders.

"I want her to sign the summoner's contract."


	9. The Lovers

**Chapter 9. The Lovers**

If somebody ever asked Sasuke what displeases him the most in long-term missions and travels, he would probably say that nothing does. That, however, wouldn't be a completely honest answer.

Even though he'd never willingly show impatience, deep inside, the lack of action irritated him quite a lot. And simply walking through the savage forest for the third day in a row didn't make the situation any better for him.

Of course, he had his student to talk and spar with, but considering how hard she usually worked out during their trainings, it took her a lot of time to restore afterwards. And unfortunately last time she nearly drove herself to losing consciousness after hours of perfecting her taijutsu. By now, she looked more less rested, but another spar so soon would probably make her even more exhausted, and Sasuke didn't want any more halts until they reached their destination.

That's why Hinata now looked as if she felt a bit guilty for the apparently bad mood of the Uchiha. They spent the whole previous day on chatting, discussing many different things, from her training to the stories of his past with Orochimaru, Team Taka and Akatsuki, but he was getting tired of talking, especially considering that he wasn't much of a talkative person. Not that she was one, either,. Yet still, Hinata gladly used every opportunity to speak with him. It seemed strange to Sasuke, but for some reason she craved to know more about his past. As if she was trying to figure him out or something like that...

It would even become a little suspicious at some point, if the girl, in fact, never showed any romantic interest in him. Which was good for Sasuke, without a doubt, but it only made her curiosity seem even weirder to the Uchiha. With him, she was completely different from what she was with any other person they met on their way to the ruins of Uzushiogakure and beforehand. Her usual behavior was very similar to his own – cold, distant, silent, collected, repulsive.  
Alone with Sasuke, though, she was relaxed, she smiled – not often, but still; the Hyūga also always tried to help him with everything she was able to, getting dangerously close to the line of becoming annoying, yet, he had to admit it, never crossing it.

This was getting on his nerves. Not his student herself, but the enigma she was becoming. He just couldn't understand what was going on and why she acted like this, and there was no way to find it out – they've made the agreement, according to which he couldn't use Human Path on her again if it wasn't an issue of mortal danger.

But the most disturbing part of it was that not everything was going according to his plans.

After what Kō did to her, Sasuke expected Hinata to turn into his own past self. With that he could easily deal – after all, he himself only changed recently, so the memories of being an avenger were still more than fresh.

But she was different, and that was the problem.

Perhaps it was the fact that she's a woman, or the lack of the Curse of Hatred, but...  
Back then, he didn't have anyone who he wanted to help. Who he wanted to talk to. To stick to.  
Nobody made him smile, nobody could make him be kind and gentle like she always was with him.

And that changed everything, because it was obvious that her priorities and goals in her life were much different from his past ones. She wanted revenge, but he was clearly more important to her.

That made him feel insecure, and he hated those rare moments when he had to hesitate.

"What are you thinking about, Sasuke-san?" The sudden question to his left pulled him out of his uneasy thoughts, making the Uchiha glare at the black haired girl who gazed at him with concern and guilt in her white eyes.

He clenched his teeth, wanting to outburst, but stopping himself from doing so, for he realized that there was no reason to blame her, none at all. His boredom was his own problem, she had nothing to do with it, as well as with his failures of understanding the girl, as her sensei and... companion.

"I just want to get there as soon as possible. He said that the man is pretty old – would be unfortunate to find him dead because of us walking too slow." Her expression was now somewhat between embarrassed and cheered up, both because of his remark about her being too tired to go at full speed and because of his grim joke.

"Well, if he's dead and we find his body, you can bring a sample of his DNA back to Orochimaru and revive him to interrogate, too." She chuckled, and he smirked in response as well.

If he truly succeeded at least in something while spending time with her for nearly two months by now, that certainly was building up her sense of humor and making the girl behave much more liberated and relaxed than before, at least in his presence. If anything, she became quite pleasant to have conversation with, and that was a very high score, coming from Uchiha Sasuke. But it was true - she didn't annoy him, didn't talk much, didn't try to start a chat when he didn't want it and didn't push on the matters he had no wish to discuss.

In other words, she was much like him on this side, and it was perfect for the boy.

"Aren't you tired of wandering from one corner of the Land of Fire to another, though? That would take us another month."

Hinata giggled, covering her mouth with her palm.

"Oh, I didn't think about it this way... then I'd rather have him alive and healthy for sure. But... I'm sorry, I can't go any faster." She lowered her eyes, silencing.

And now it was his turn to feel guilty... what he was blaming her for anyway? For trying really hard to please him by becoming better and better with every day passing...?

He waved off dismissively, turning away from the girl.

"Don't worry about it. We're actually pretty close – use your Byakugan and check yourself. It must be approximately five miles ahead of us now."

Nodding doubtfully, she did as he told, activating her dōjutsu and looking through the trees, smiling widely again a second later.

"Yes... I see it! But... the ruins are surrounded by a wall, much like the one in Konoha, and I... can't see anything behind it."

Sasuke glanced at her again, with surprise in his eyes this time.

"Can't see...? How... ah." He nodded as he realized the reason why she couldn't. "It must be some trick of the Uzumaki Clan... they are well known for their seals, so I guess they could've come up with an idea of how to protect their village from Byakugan users. They surely wouldn't want their secrets to be exposed in such an easy way."

She blinked, listening to his explanation, before hesitantly nodding.

"I guess it makes sense... but it also means that we'll have to go inside without any way to check for traps and other... unpleasant surprises." She muttered, frowning.

The Uchiha shrugged with indifference.

"I guess we will. Is there anything or anyone outside the village that worths our attention?"

She looked around again, slowly shaking her head.

"No... probably not. But the entrance is sealed, and... there are a few signs... this place is not as abandoned as it seems."

"Anybody on our way?"

She smiled a bit, knowing how much he craved to have a fight with somebody after long days of boredom.

"No, nobody is there."

"Too bad. What is it, then?" He asked, a little annoyed by the fact that another opportunity to get some relief slipped away.

"There are multiple footprints, relatively fresh. There also are a few felled trees with leaves on them, which means that they've been cut down only recently, as well as a few traps set for animals here and there. I think it's safe to assume that whoever they are, they are hiding inside the ruins." He had to admit that her Byakugan, along with her sharp mind, attention to details and analysis skills were extremely handful. Now that the girl got rid of her psychological issues – well, most of them at least – her abilities weren't being held back anymore, and, surprisingly enough to him, Hinata turned to be pretty intelligent and observant.

Once again, just like himself.

She was so much like him yet so much different at the same time... it was nearly driving the Uchiha crazy by now, because he just wasn't able to understand her, no matter how hard he tried.

And the fact that _a girl_ made him feel such a burst of emotions was making it even worse.

They walked in silence for a while, and just when dusk began taking its time, the great wall that surrounded Uzushiogakure became visible to Sasuke.

"Let's make haste, I want to be done with this before midnight so we can get out of here as soon as possible." He ordered, rushing forward.

Hinata, despite being tired and still a bit weakened, quickly nodded and ran towards the wall as well, trying to keep up with her master – apparently he wasn't the only one who got that uneasy feeling the closer they got to the ruins, as if something dreadful was awaiting them inside.

It took them a few minutes to get to what Sasuke assumed was the gates years before. Right now, the big entrance was blocked with a huge boulder that was painted with countless seals. On top of that, the upper part of the wall wasn't ending where it was supposed to end - the barrier visible only with his Rinnegan covered the whole territory like an impenetrable bubble of chakra, making it impossible to get there by summoning his hawk.

The Uchiha silently cursed, clenching his fists.

Of course, he didn't expect it to be easy, but the revived shinobi never mentioned any major obstacles on the way to his father's house... which probably meant that these were relatively fresh.

"Sasuke-san, check this out... I think it's some sort of a puzzle..." Hinata pointed at the sealing lines on the boulder, frowning and biting her lip.

He came closer, looking at the pattern.

It was indeed a big net of different seals, some of them being incredibly complex. He could see a few places where the chakra was supposed to be channeled in order to move the lines; some of them led to the explosive seals, some to the ones with poison, and some to the seals he wasn't familiar with – apparently some secret development of the Uzumaki clan. And some of the unknown ones were or was supposed to open the gateway... but which one, exactly?

He sat down in the lotus pose, mesmerized by this riddle. Hinata stood next to him, thinking on the puzzle, too.

They spent what seemed like an hour like that before the Hyūga girl lightly touched his shoulder, taking him out of his desperate struggling to figure it out.

"Sasuke-san... we're being surrounded."

"What...?" He asked distantly, not moving his eyes away from the boulder.

She sighed, uttering a little louder:

"Twenty men are surrounding us from each direction, they are getting closer and closer, and they have their weapons out."

He just waved it off, annoyed, which surprised Hinata.

"Then deal with them, I need to find the solution to this."

Who could've thought that her master would prefer a brainstorm over a good fight?  
Fortunately she now felt rested enough to defeat a few low class ninja effortlessly.

And just as she unbuttoned her cloak, preparing for a fight, the leader of the band showed up, smirking.

"Well, well, well, look what we've got here, guys... a beautiful princess to have fun with, and a sweet, tasty boy for you, Takeshi." There was a chorus of laughs with notable signs of insanity in them from the bushes around - the men dressed in dirty castoffs started showing up from, forming a ring around the two of them.

"What am I supposed to do with them, Sasuke-san?" Hinata asked in a surprisingly calm manner, not moving her eyes from the leader of this gang.

The Uchiha shrugged without even turning his head to check what was going on.

"Suit yourself. I'd say kill everyone except the leader, he might be useful for us – after all, they got out of the ruins somehow, which means they can enter it, too."

That was reasonable enough to her, so Hinata took her usual battle stance, closing her eyes and activating the Byakugan.

The goons, however, burst in another wave of laughter.

"Did you hear this, boys? This kid told his chick to kill us... ow-w, that's so-o scary!" The laugh died in his throat as the two of his men fell down, their necks being cut by a flash of lightning. "Wh-wha...?!" He cried, looking at the dying comrades, quickly moving his terrified eyes to the girl whose hand was covered with lightning chakra that sparkled brightly, lightening the space around them and making the loud, annoying noise, similar to that of a bird's chirping.

"K-kill that bitch now!" He yelled desperately, the whole band charging at Hinata, but she only smirked, appearing behind their backs before they could react and killing another three of them.

"You're being too slow... I recommend you to surrender now and kindly answer our questions, so I don't have to take more lives here." She now looked dead serious, making the leader even more terrified.

"Only over my cold, dead body, you little whore!" Ignoring his own fear, he charged at her again, his subordinates not moving this time.

The Hyūga sighed, shaking her head.

"I warned you... now you leave me no choice." She channeled her energy into her fists, the two lion's heads built of chakra forming around them.

 _This time I'll be able to make it work...!_

The color of her chakra suddenly changed from blue to red and orange, the head of each lion becoming made of incredibly hot, radiating flames.

" _Katon: Jūho Sōshiken!_ " The lion from her left hand charged forward, crashing into the chest of the one the thugs, instantly making him scream in agony as his insides were being incinerated within just a few seconds, his mutilated corpse falling down to the grass a moment later. Those three who stood nearby have been ignited as well, and now they were screaming and trying to extinguish the deadly flames.

The second lion, however, didn't follow Hinata's will - it exploded, making the girl trip and fall down, barely managing to avoid the burst of fire that was about to kill her.

Fortunately enough, the remaining men were too frightened and confused to take advantage of the situation and attack her, so she was able to quickly get up, slightly moaning of pain – her right arm was covered with burns now.

"Didn't I tell you to not use this technique just yet?" She heard the distant question of her master who still didn't bother to check how she was doing.

The girl cursed, clenching her teeth in annoyance and irritation. Of course, he was right there - it was too dangerous yet, since her chakra control wasn't good enough to combine the technique that was pretty complicated as it was with nature manipulation. Yet still, she so wanted it to work...

And though she didn't want to admit it even to herself...

Hinata wanted to impress the Uchiha.

It wasn't something impossible - she managed to do it a few times by now, but that was a pretty rare occasion. His requirements were really high, and she usually wasn't able to meet the man's expectations.  
But whenever she managed to, he looked at her differently – with joy in his eyes, with acknowledgement... with respect.

She liked such looks. She wanted him to see her as someone of who he could be proud, not a nuisance and annoyance that she always was to people in Konoha... and to him right now.

"Yeah... sorry." She replied to him calmly, not wanting to show her emotions to her companion.

Using Chidori again, she charged at the remaining goons, quickly killing the rest of them and disabling their leader who now looked as if he was ready to die of a heart attack.

"It's done, Sasuke-san." She tied the man's hands, kicking him in the back so he fell down to the ground from his knees, the face dipping into the mood.

"Fine... this seems too complicated to me. I think it's impossible to open it without the specific knowledge of the Uzumaki clan. However..." He got up, coming closer to his student and looking at the sole shaking survivor. "I guess we won't be needing it." He gripped the man's hair, making him cry in pain as Sasuke forcefully raised his head to look the man in the eyes. "Where is the entrance to the village? How many of your fellows are still in there? Do you by any chance know the old man that lives or lived in there two decades ago?" The man apparently had no intention to reply, and Sasuke had to admit that he had some courage – instead of answering the Uchiha's questions, he spat in the boy's face, desperately closing his eyes, apparently preparing to be killed.

"Fair enough... I have my own ways of getting information." He let the leader's hair, gripping his neck instead and using the Rinnegan's Human Path, entering the man's mind and finding the memories he required within a split second.

Sasuke smirked, turning his head to Hinata.

"It seems we're pretty lucky... this piece of shit knows more than I expected. Bandage your arm, we're moving out." He loosened his grip, thus making the shinobi fall down to the ground for the last time in his life as his soul has left his body, being held by Sasuke's hand.

The Hyūga watched the scene in awe, forgetting the task that her master gave her.

"Is... is this what happens if the connection made by _Ningendō_ is being cut against your will?" She whispered, looking at the fading clot of chakra in the Uchiha's grasp.

"Pretty much." He replied, turning away and walking along the wall away from the gates.

She hurried up to follow him, catching up with the Uchiha in a few seconds.

"So I nearly killed myself back then...?" She asked perplexedly, shocked by the sudden revelation.

"Yeah." He muttered quietly, as if it wasn't a big deal.

But then again, was it, back then...? At the time, she didn't have much desire to live, and him, well... did he really have any reason to be careful with her life?

"I see." She replied, ending their tensed conversation.

The rest of their way to wherever Sasuke was heading went silent. At some point, they turned away from the wall, and walked for about ten minutes through the trees before finally stopping near another big boulder, much like the one that sealed the gates of the village, except this one was covered with moss instead of the seals. Although there were two seals on it, both of the locking type – in other words, only those who had the key-seals were able to move it away.

"It's here." The Uchiha raised his hand, and Hinata felt the strong wave of unnatural gravity force pushing the immense rock away, accompanied by loud rumbling.

Under the boulder was the relatively small dip; although she couldn't see anything underground, probably due to the same protection that prevented her from seeing the insides of the village, it was fairly obvious that it was the entrance to the secret passage that led to the ruins.

"Let's go." Sasuke jumped down, landing almost instantly – apparently it wasn't too high to fall, so she followed the man right away.

Both of them could see clearly through the pitch darkness thanks to their dōjutsu, so there was no point in lightening the tunnel.

"I can now see everything up to the end of this passage. There are no traps, at least I can't detect any." She said, carefully peering at the floor under their feet.

"I don't see anything, either. Still, stay on guard. There might be somebody else out there."

For some reason, this comment made the girl feel anger that began filling her. Did he truly think she couldn't protect herself from those stupid animals...? Was it because of her ridiculous performance with that undeveloped technique, or did he consider her weak in general?

 _But... what if...?_

Even though he was walking ahead of her, she still could and did use her Byakugan to check his expression. But it was impassive, as usual.

What if he said it because he actually was truly concerned about her life? What if he said it because he cared for her, and not because of her failures...?

 _Never mind that._

It didn't matter what he thought of her at the moment. She was ready to work even harder to convince him that she wasn't a waste of his time.

After all, he was the only importance in her life.

That's why instead of diving even deeper into these thoughts, she quietly muttered:

"Sasuke-san, I understand you know where we're going now... are there more of these thugs?"

He shook his head without turning around.

"No, these were the only ones. And they were not exactly thugs. These are rogue shinobi from different villages who sought refuge, and they spent quite some time here by now, on the ruins of the village. Knowing that it's still pretty dangerous here even after a few decades since the downfall of Uzushio, people usually try to avoid the village and the area surrounding it. That's why it's a perfect place to hide... at least they thought so. According to what I got from his memories, some of them haven't seen a living human being aside from their gang for at least five years. Being completely isolated, without any source of information, hygiene and other gifts of civilization, they began degrading, in the end becoming these wild, barely sane marauders which you did put out of their misery."

Hinata's eyes widened as he spoke. They truly seemed insane, but this... who on earth would want to live like that? And what was even worse... come to think of it, if she didn't approach Sasuke on that fateful day, she could've ended up exactly like them... like the Uchiha told her she would.

He was truly her savior... but...

"I see... but you said they haven't met anybody in years. Does it mean that the man we're looking for isn't there, after all?" The Hyūga carefully asked, not wanting to upset her master anymore.

But it seemed that she had nothing to worry about – this time, he turned his head to glance at the girl with his Sharingan and smirked.

"It's actually quite the opposite. Dead or alive, he's still there. These men went through the ruins far and wide, collecting everything useful they could find, but they weren't able to break into the certain house – the entrance is sealed, and when they tried to break the seal, somebody yelled at them from the inside, and then something killed the three of them through the window, making their leader the only survivor. He never saw the person who did it, but our old man didn't leave the village, of that he was absolutely sure. That's why they tried to avoid the building the best they could ever since then."

In other words, they were very close to accomplishing another goal. Of course, there still were lots of 'ifs' when it came to the conversation with the old man, but at least Sasuke didn't look annoyed anymore.  
The girl didn't even notice how much her own mood depended on the Uchiha now.

And he didn't notice it either, obviously. His head was too overwhelmed with the thoughts of meeting his possibly last surviving relative. Was he even sane after so many years of reclusion? Sasuke truly hoped he was, because otherwise it would make things much more difficult for them. Not that he was the one to look for the easy ways, yet still, it was his family he was thinking about.

He stopped, looking up to the exit from the passage.

"There we go..." Without any warnings, he jumped up, making it to the surface of something that was once a street of Uzushiogakure – Hinata followed him a second later, landing next to the boy.

"It..." She gasped, refusing to believe her own eyes. "How..."

"Yeah... told you, they more than deserved to die." He gave the space around them a grim look, yet still not moving an inch away from his spot.

Before them was apparently what their now dead attackers would call their base or home. But it was probably the last thing on earth that Sasuke would ever call a place suitable for living.

First of all, there was no roof, walls or floor – only a few rough, dirty boards lying here and there, probably the remains of what was once a hut in the village. On some of those boards were roughly piled twigs and branches, as well as dirty, disgusting clothes, soaked with gore, sweat and gods know what else.

There also was a big cauldron with unidentified substance in it just next to them, and around the cauldron were... bones. Lots of bones, in fact. And some of them certainly belonged to humans...

And, on top of that, inside the cauldron was the human skull.

"Apparently we're not the first ones to visit this place recently, after all..." He sighed, noticing the gaze of Hinata directed at the bones, her eyes filled with burning rage.

"You're wrong... they deserved a much more cruel death." She nearly roared, taking a step forward.

"Wait, Hina... no!" The Uchiha suddenly shouted, but it was too late - before she could react, he grabbed the girl around her waist and used _Amenotejikara_ , making them land onto the highest spot nearby – the remains of the stone wall of some long-destroyed building.

And the instant they did, a loud, deafening explosion made them fall down to the ground.

Coughing, the Uchiha slowly got up, screwing up his eyes because of the dust that the triggered trap raised.

"Why on earth you're not using your Byakugan?! You need to be careful here of all places, damn it!" He shouted at her, infuriated by her imprudence.

The girl winced, trying to get up as well.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault! I was too shocked by the view... you should've told me what they truly did before we got here...!" She blurted, standing up on her shaking legs as well.

"As if it's relevant! What are you, a stupid brat?! Do you even realize that you could've just killed the both of us here if I wasn't fast enough?! Use your damn head for something else but eating!"

Hinata clenched her fists and teeth, looking at him with the anger he'd never seen coming from her before.

"Stop yelling at me! I told you I'm sorry! What the hell do you want me to do now?!" She cried, hitting the wall with her fist.

"I want you to stop being stupid and to use your brain, nothing else! Is it that much to ask from you?" His own anger was decreasing as he realized that she was unharmed, but it seemed that she was only getting more and more inflamed by his words.

"I've already heard that! You think I'm stupid, alright, I got it. Would you maybe want me to go away, then?! Since I'm risking your life that much – I don't wanna be a burden! Just go ahead and do everything alone like you're used to – don't bother wasting your precious time on me anymore!" She turned around, walking away from him, limping a bit.

The Uchiha sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Still being stupid. I told you to stop." He uttered calmly, turning away himself and checking the road for other traps, but it seemed that the thing that Hinata had triggered there was the only one, probably left by the cannibals themselves for the possible intruders.

Seeing as nothing blocked his way, he started walking towards the building from the memories he took from the leader of the band – it wasn't that far away; in fact, he could see the roof from their current point, so he decided to get there as soon as possible, hastening a bit.

It was only a matter of twenty seconds or so before he smirked, hearing the familiar light footsteps behind his back.

The building itself looked solid, even after so many years since it's been demolished. Build of cobblestone, it had three floors, multiple windows – each of them closed and sealed – and the massive metallic doors with multiple complex seals on them.

"Now then..." He muttered, looking at the window through which the goons from the leader's memories had been killed with a few kunai.

What was he going to do now? Destroying the building just to enter it didn't sound too polite, especially considering that inside of it was his old clansman. Breaking through the doors... not too good, either. Not to mention that such possibility was pretty doubtful, considering the amount of seals on it.

"I understand you can't see what's inside?" He asked, still peering at the window.

A few seconds passed before the female voice quietly replied:

"No. I can't."

He sighed.

"Hello! Anybody alive there? We're from Konohagakure, these marauders that bothered you are dead now! Can we please talk?" He asked, not really hoping for an answer.

But it actually came, after a few seconds of waiting, although not in the way the Uchiha expected.

The window he watched slightly opened, and the only thing Sasuke was able to notice through the small chink before it closed up again was the glowing dark eye.

Silence fell upon the street again, as if nothing happened at all.

Slightly roaring in frustration, the Uchiha sat down, rapidly thinking on the ways of getting inside now that he's confirmed that the man was still alive.

"Damn it..." He cursed, deactivating his Sharingan – the vision provided by the Rinnegan was more than enough for now.

"I think I know what might help..." Hinata mumbled, getting closer to the door and knocking.

"Please, open the door! I'm the Sixth Hokage, Uchiha Hinata. Me and my advisor came here to talk to you, nothing more, I promise! It's a very serious issue!" She yelled, holding her breath and waiting.  
Sasuke looked at his student with his mouth open. He never expected her to pull such a gamble. And... Uchiha Hinata? What the hell?!

But what shocked him even more was the sudden noise behind the sealed door. The pattern of the multiple seals shifted, getting off the metallic surface, and with loud, disgusting rasping, the massive door slowly opened.

"An Uchiha Hokage... that's new..." The raspy female voice grumbled from the darkness behind the entrance, making the Uchiha jump to the spot near Hinata the same instant.

An old, brown haired woman dressed in a simple black kimono looked at the girl with apparent despise and arrogance, and, when she noticed Hinata's eyes, with distrust, too.

"I can see you have the different dōjutsu... who are you trying to fool here, child?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "And you expect me to help you after such a silly lie?"

"Nobody lied. She's indeed the Hokage, and an Uchiha, too. My name is Uchiha Sasuke, and this is my wife." He uttered with passion that was so much unlike him, trying to ignore the terrified glance that Hinata sent to him. Little did he know that by saying this, he reminded his student of the pretty similar situation in Tazuna's house... the one she never wanted him to find out about.  
And of course she didn't expect him to pick up her lie and follow this ridiculous line.

The old lady narrowed her eyes, gazing at him, a spark of recognition flashing in her eyes the instant she noticed his now activated Sharingan.

"Hm-m... fair enough, Uchiha Sasuke. Now this makes a some sense... get in, we'll talk." She moved back inside the looming darkness of the house, inviting them to enter.

The master and the student looked at each other with strong mixtures of emotions in the eyes, yet, without saying a word to each other, they followed the woman, Hinata carefully closing the door behind them.

Getting up to the second floor, they noticed a small sofa and two chairs, one of them already taken by the mysterious woman.

"Sit down, be my guests." She offered, pointing at the free chair.

The Hyūga tried to go and sit on the sofa, but fortunately enough, Sasuke managed to catch her by the waist and turned the girl towards the free chair, making sure that the mistress of the house didn't notice his student's priceless expression.

He himself stood to Hinata's left, placing his only hand on her shoulder and barely holding the smirk - he was right to assume that it was a test for them, or, to be more precise, a test of their words about their identities. If the Hokage sat in the corner of the room, and her supposed husband would take the chair, it would break their legend completely.

And the slightly confused look in the woman's eyes was more than enough to confirm Sasuke's suspicions.

"So... may I ask what brings the Hokage along with the legendary Uchiha Madara to my humble residence?"

Hinata gasped at her words, while the Uchiha only frowned.

"You're wrong. My name is Uchiha Sasuke."

The woman chuckled with the slightest sign of insanity, shaking her head a bit.

"You can call yourself whatever you want, but it's impossible to mistake your chakra for everything else, Madara-sama. And I can sense it clearly. So... how can I help you and your young wife?" She smirked, looking at him with apparent joy and respect at the same time.

Hinata looked at her master, horrified and confused by the woman's words, but the Uchiha only squeezed her shoulder tighter.

"I told you, you're wrong. I'm not Madara. I killed the man and took a portion of his power. See?" He moved the strand of his hair that was covering the Rinnegan, showing the purple eye to the host of the house who now looked beyond impressed and shocked at the same time.

He wasn't ready to explain the true nature of the connection between him and his ancestor to Hinata yet.

"You... killed Madara Uchiha...?! That... a child like you... how?" She nearly whispered, looking in the legendary eyes, awed and mesmerized.

"It's a long story. We came here looking for the certain man from our clan. I don't know his name, but I know for sure that he lived here in this house a few years ago. Do you by any chance know him?" He asked, ignoring the woman's expression.

"What is this?!" She suddenly shrieked, pointing at Hinata's bandaged hand.

"Huh...?" The girl lowered her eyes to her arm, clenching her fingers a few times. "Oh, this... I got a few burns when we thought those bastards that attacked us near the entrance of the village." She uttered carefully, avoiding the use of the words like 'ruins' in order to not accidentally offend the mad mistress of this weird house.

But her words made the woman even more angered, but... her gaze was directed at the Uchiha.

"What?! Not only you let your pregnant wife travel with you to such dangerous places, but you also let her fight instead of you?! And you're telling me that a wimp like you killed Uchiha Madara? Ha-ha!" She got up from her chair and quickly walked towards the cupboard, opening it and starting to look for something inside.

Sasuke was literally speechless, as well as Hinata who now looked as if she was going to faint for the first time in a long time.

 _She certainly mistook the seal's chakra for pregnancy... but such ridiculous interpretation of all the possible options... is this old hag completely out of her mind...?_

"What the hell are you talking about?" He finally managed to groan, peering at the woman with uncovered anger now. Was she trying to mess with them, or did she really think that...?

"Uh-huh, so now you're gonna tell me that you didn't know? Oh, well, perhaps you really didn't... young people are so irresponsible these days. Here..." She took a tube with some green substance, coming close to the black haired girl and kneeling before her, unwrapping her damaged hand.

"This should heal you in no time, sweety... as for you, young man..." She looked up at him, mockingly. "You might have forgotten, but I'm a sensory type kunoichi. And I can sense your chakra inside of her clearly. I guess the poor girl simply didn't want to tell you, because who would want such a douche for their children anyway? These Uchiha men are such senseless boulders, aren't they, my dear?" She winked to Hinata who silently looked back and forth from Sasuke to the woman, still too confused by what was going on.

 _Just as I expected..._

"Yes... they are..." She mumbled, and even though Sasuke knew it was only a show, a fake scene, for some reason it made him frown and blush a bit.

Finishing wrapping the girl's hand back and stepping away from the two them, the woman sat back to her chair. "Now, back to your question, young man..." She closed her eyes, relaxing and crossing her fingers before her face. "I know who you're talking about, and yes, he did live here. But he's no more."

The Uchiha frowned even more, deeply sighing.

"So he's left the place?"

She gave him an ironic smile, sighing as well.

"You could say so... he's dead. I found him here, or rather his dead body, to be more accurate. That was four years ago."

Sasuke closed his eyes in defeat. So all this was for nothing, after all... there was no way of following this fragile chain that could potentially lead to the remains of his family anymore.

"Don't worry too much – his life here wasn't too pleasant, so his death was more like liberation for him. I find it pretty cute that he chose to spend his last days here of all places, though. It's so nostalgic... after all those years, he never stopped thinking about me..."

 _Wait. What did she just say...?_

His eyes snapped open. Perhaps not everything was lost yet?

"So you knew him?" He asked impatiently.

The woman looked at him as if he was a complete idiot.

"Did I know him, you ask? Of course I did. I knew him since our childhood. Poor Matsui... after all those years, he never stopped loving me. And I still love him, too..." He noticed her eyes filling with tears.

"Are you... are you that Uzumaki woman? The one because of who he had left the clan and the village?" Now he managed to surprise her - the old woman's face changed, becoming shocked and suspicious again, with a sign of something else he couldn't grasp just yet.

"How do you know that...?" She whispered, looking in his eyes.

"I don't know much. I've met the boy... the man who Matsui raised like a son. He directed us to this place, and told a bit of the story of his father. He mentioned you, as well as the fact that they actually lived here for many years before an accident separated them, but I think he stayed here because this place was the only connection to you he had remaining. He thought that you died during the destruction of Uzushiogakure, so yeah, they lived here because of his nostalgic feelings. Why didn't you come back here if you survived, though?"

She now looked at him as if he was an angel that came down from heaven, barely able to utter a word.

"I... I see now... that's why... oh..." She covered her face with her palms as her body began shaking while the woman sobbed.

"I... please, pardon me... it's just... that boy... and Matsui... he never knew that he actually had a real child..."

Sasuke felt how his heart began beating much faster. A real child? Could it be...?

"I couldn't come back... I was imprisoned in Kirigakure for many, many years, along with our son, before Naoto was able to run away when he had an opportunity to do so... this was the last time I saw him. I tried to look for him afterwards, but his trace ends on the way to Amegakure... and when I realized that looking for him was futile, I decided to come back here, only to find my love's dead body." She cried loudly, and Hinata suddenly got up from her spot, coming closer to the Uzumaki elder and hugging her.

"And then, a few months ago, something happened... I could see him again. My Matsui... he was alive, and Naoto was here, too. I thought it was a miracle... some kind of a weird dream, but I swear..." She looked Sasuke in the eyes, and now he could clearly see that she totally wasn't sane. "It was real. Naoto and Matsui, they were here. And the village, too... it was rebuilt, and everyone was alive! Trust me, they did... but then... this tree, be it damned..."

So that's what it was. The tree. Shinju, then. Of course, the woman had been trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi just like everyone else.

"It destroyed everything... killed everyone again. And these mongrels came back, too... please... can you help me, Madara-sama?" She cried, pushing Hinata away and crawling to Sasuke, desperately sobbing. "Please... I want them all back. I want back there... I love them so much, I can't live without them... I've been waiting for the miracle my whole life, since I gave birth to my boy, Naoto, in that prison, and raised him there, too... please... Madara-sama... I know your power has no limits... I beg you... give him back to me... give both of them back to me!" She hugged his legs, and the Uchiha realized that it was one of the most uncomfortable, yet, at the same time, touching moments in his life.

And apparently Hinata, who stood there with her eyes filled with dread and sorrow, covering her mouth with her palms, felt the same.

Lightly tapping the woman's temple, he hugged her and helped her get up, hugging her as if she was a hurting child.

"I will help you... please, don't cry. I will bring them back for you... Uzumaki Otomi."

She smiled, brushing away her tears and looking at him as if he was a god himself.

"I knew I wasn't wrong about you, Madara-sama... I knew you remembered me... thank you... thank you so much! They called you a monster, but ever since I saw you for the first time with my Matsui, I knew that you're the man with the kindest heart..."

He smiled hesitantly, helping the woman get up.

"Please, get to your bed... you need to save your energy for your family. You'll see them soon..."

Holding her trembling hand as Otomi lay down to her sofa, the Uchiha channeled chakra into his left eye...

"Sasuke! No, please, don't do this...!" Hinata suddenly shrieked, charging at him, but it was too late - the woman's eyes changed it's color and pattern, becoming exactly the same as his Rinnegan, and then she became silent, the only noise coming from her being her peaceful breathing.

The Uchiha turned his head to his student who stopped in the middle of the room with a confused and feared expression.

"Do what, exactly?" He asked, and perhaps it was his unusually quiet voice, or his eyes that now looked empty and dead, just like back when he stood near Itachi's corpse, but the girl didn't say anything – instead, she came closer and hugged him tightly, staying like that for what seemed like an eternity.

"I thought you were going to kill her..." She whispered to his ear, her breath tickling the skin on his cheek.

"I did. Or I will. She will die soon enough, because there is no way out of this genjutsu for her. But at least she won't feel anything, thinking that she's with her beloved ones." Hinata didn't reply, only tightening her embrace.

Never before she saw Sasuke like that...

An hour later, they were walking through the forest again. It was already completely dark – the moon was covered with heavy clouds, but they didn't care – each was deep in thoughts about what they've witnessed in Uzushiogakure.  
Of one thing the Hyūga was absolutely sure - she'd never want to come back to Uzushiogakure again. There hardly was a place more dark and depressing than these ruins.

"Where are we going now?" She finally asked, unsure if she should break the oppressive silence or not, yet unable to stand it anymore.

Sasuke didn't respond for what seemed like a minute, but then he finally said, calm as usual:

"Amegakure no Sato. We need to find her son."

That was obvious, exactly what she expected, but at least now they talked again...

"But before that, I want to visit some place to relax a bit. And I need to have a word with Kakashi, too... we have a lot of things to handle, starting with..." He continued talking, but she didn't listen what exactly he was saying – they've already discussed their plans more than a few times, but the sound of his voice made her feel much better.

She was simply glad that he was back to normal again. After seeing his eyes in that dark room, the Hyūga girl was afraid that what happened there might break him, knowing how much he missed his own family himself...

But what was even more important, that night she was finally able to confirm her suspicions about the man. Despite his immense power, despite all his impenetrable defenses, despite past and despite what people told about him, under the shells and masks, Sasuke was a very kind and gentle man. It made her feel the unfamiliar warmth, the realization of the fact that she was probably the only person alive who actually was able to see this side of him first hand...

And even despite that, she realized another important thing.

Nothing could break Uchiha Sasuke.


	10. Trust

**Chapter 10. Trust**

The mist before her eyes slowly dissipated, revealing the Team Seven, along with the one who she could easily call the strangest man she ever seen.

He looked a bit similar to the young man Hinata saw a few weeks ago, when she was dying in Orochimaru's hideout. The hair looked pretty much the same, although the color was different; he looked much older, and his purple eyes were quite familiar, too – the Rinnegan. He was gazing at Naruto and Sasuke askance, which made his wrinkled face look even more sinister. On top of that, the ancient man was floating, sitting in the air in the lotus pose.

"...yes, they came back. I used the summoning with the previous five Kage... I also called back the historical Kage from the pure land so they could help me, too." He smiled, and his grin made her shiver. "Naruto, Sasuke and everyone. Thank you for saving the world."

She then gazed at the two teens – both of them looked absolutely opposite, Naruto being extremely happy at the moment, and Sasuke looking as if he was mourning someone or something. He didn't seem happy due to this fact at all.

Was this a vision from the past...? The creepy man said they saved the world... that would mean that they've already defeated Madara at this point. But Sasuke's arm was still intact... was there something they didn't tell anybody about the events during the Infinite Tsukuyomi?

"Yeah, Rikudō-jīchan!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully, throwing his fist in the air.

"Could this be... are you the legendary..." Kakashi gasped, glaring at the old man with apparent shock in his eyes.

"I am Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo... also known as the Rikudō sennin by many."

 _Now that makes some sense..._

Sakura sighed, looking down to the ground.

"I thought so... you are floating in midair. After all that has happened, nothing seems to surprise me anymore. I'm pretty tired of it, honestly."

"Oh, would you look at that... looks like everything went well, didn't it...?" One of the mysterious ghosts of the previous kage smirked.

"The ninja world has changed so much since our times... good grief..." The other one exclaimed, closing his eyes.

"It's the first time I've seen all the tailed beasts gathered together!" The third ghost added, and Hinata gasped, finally looking around, only to see all the bijū sitting around them, looking absolutely calm and relieved.

"Rikudō sennin, huh... I always believed it was a fairy tail."

 _So did she._

"So it turned out like this in the end, huh... summoning the previous gokage... and summoning us in the form of the tailed beasts from the other dimension..." The two tailed beast murmured with an apparently female voice.

"Well, you're the only one that could do something as godly as this." The gray haired jōnin muttered, still looking at Hagoromo incredulously.

The sage turned to him, peering at the man for a second.

"So you're Hatake Kakashi."

"Huh...? Uh... yes."

"You've done a great job leading the rest of them and sealing mother... I guess this is what god's miracles look like."

 _Sealing mother...? What on earth he's talking about...?_

"No... in fact, I couldn't really do much. It was all thanks to these guys... and a lot of my other comrades. Plus... an old friend of mine lent me his power once again." The Sixth Hokage now looked sad, lowering his eyes.

The sage smiled.

"Even so... that's some great leadership skills. You've carried out your role well as Naruto's mentor and as Obito's friend, despite being lost yourself. And if it weren't for that, you would've never been able to stop mother.

 _Mother... so she heard it correctly the first time._

"He-e-ey! Kurama! I've missed you, buddy! Did you miss me, too?!" Naruto suddenly yelled, waving his hand to the Kyūbi.

"Shut up! I didn't miss you at all! You've got half of me in you, don't you, brat?!"

"Ga-ha-ha-ha!" The other beast laughed hysterically - the one that sat next to the fox and had four tails.

The sage smiled, turning his head to them.

"Heh... look at that Kurama getting all embarrassed and fluttered... but this is what I waited to see this whole time. For the birth of a ninja that could make the tailed beasts offer their help on their own accord."

Sakura smiled, and Sasuke glanced at Naruto thoughtfully, frowning a bit.

What was her master thinking...? He didn't look displeased or dissatisfied, just... sad and distant. As if he knew something they all didn't, and was thinking how to tell it to them.

"But... Obito as well... if it weren't for Naruto, it was him that brought Obito back." Hatake said, eying the sage.

"I see. Well, I'll just have to ask Obito to tell me about it when I get back... is he still here...?

Kakashi lowered his eyes again, not saying anything for a few seconds before falling down, with Sakura barely managing to catch him in time.

"Kakashi-sensei...!"

"Sorry, Sakura..." He sighed tiredly.

The pink haired girl gasped, looking her former teacher in the eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei! Your eye..."

"Yeah... guess Kakashi of the Sharingan ends today."

There was a sudden coughing noise to the left, and Sasuke flinched, turning his head in the direction of the sound and looking at someone's body lying nearby with calm determination.

Was it.. _Madara?!_ And near him was the first Hokage, kneeling down...

"Madara was once a jinchūriki... so now that he no longer has a tailed beast sealed in him, there's no saving him..."

"He had it coming when he chose to use it." The youngest Uchiha suddenly snapped, still looking at his ancestor, yet not moving an inch.

The sage didn't reply anything, turning his head away from the dying legendary man.

"Sasuke... Naruto... these are the last of your predecessors. Take a good look while you can."

 _Predecessors... in what?_

The two of Konoha's founders talked for what seemed like a minute, but she couldn't hear a word... and not that Hinata was really interested. She had more important things right now to pay attention to, the prime Sasuke's unusual mysteriousness.

"It's time... I'll send them all back!" The sage finally broke the silence, and Naruto turned his head towards somewhere before jumping away in that direction, landing a hundred yards away near the Fourth Hokage, his father.

She could see them talking about something for a short time, before the Fourth's, as well as the other Kages' artificial bodies began shining, slowly disappearing in the air.

Hinata could see Naruto lowering his head, and Sakura hugging Kakashi, nearly crying.

But Sasuke looked as calm and indifferent as before. What was going on in his head...? Even now that she knew him relatively well after their long travel and time together, this Sasuke from the past... she couldn't read him at all.

The Sage smiled at the picture of Naruto's farewell with his dad.

"Ah, we're free now. I'll be going back to the suiren caves, Ukiki!" The Yonbi said cheerfully.

"I'm staying in my forest." The five tailed beast added quietly, looking at his fellow.

"Oh, finally, the time for us to return to our homes has come... feels like a dream, heh!" The Nanabi laughed.

"Hachibi. What'll you be doing?" Kurama asked, turning his head to the octupus.

"Me... I'm... uhh... y'know... I think I'm just gonna go back to Bee. I've gotten used to his awful rap and it's odd not hearing it. But... you?"

Kurama didn't say anything.

"Naruto has a bit of all your chakras in him now. So to be put simply, he's something like a meeting place for you guys. If you need to talk among yourselves for whatever reason, you could just use these chakras in him to do it. Kurama, you'll stay in Naruto and manage the meetings. Do you object?"

"Well... if you say so, then I guess there's no helping it." The Kyūbi sighed, closing his eyes in defeat.

"Actually, Rikudō-jīchan... I object." Naruto said, suddenly becoming unusually serious. "I already have the half of Kurama inside of me... I think it will be 'nough to do the job. Kurama always craved freedom so much, being imprisoned by so many different people... I don't want him to lose this possibility. I want to let this half of him stay free."

The fox looked at it's host in disbelief, and for a second Hinata thought that the monstrous being is going to cry.

"Thank you... Naruto..."

The sage smiled again, closing his eyes.

"I guess I could expect nothing less from Ashura... so be it. Naruto and Sasuke... have your answers changed after the fight with mother Kaguya?"

 _Ashura...? And they actually did fight someone aside from Madara... this mother the Sage keep referring to... And Sasuke never mentioned her, not even once. If they decided to keep it secret... was she so strong and terrific...?_

The Uchiha didn't say anything.

"Nope, mine is the same... but I've got something to tell you, gramps... and it might hurt, but... I thought of something after fighting Kaguya. I gotta say, I'm pretty damn glad that Uzumaki Kushina's my mom. Kaguya's different from the others I've fought before this... it's like she didn't have a heart..."

The sage hemmed, looking at the blond boy thoughtfully.

"Mother was once a rather widely worshipped goddess... and I don't know what changed her so much to the point she was referred to as a demon. Something must've happened when she ate the chakra fruit. Whatever the case, you're not like mother. You might have the chakras of all the tailed beasts, but I don't think you'd ever become what she did." He sighed, closing his eyes. "Now, all that's left is to undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi..."

"How do you do it? Do you need our powers, too?" Kurama growled.

"No, it's fine... all we need to do is get Naruto, who has the chakra of all the beasts, and Saskue's Rinnegan to tie the spell's roots together and undo it completely."

"Wha-a-at? That sounds easy!" The beast chuckled, and it sounded almost humanly.

"I did some research on the same Infinite Tsukuyomi jutsu that mother once used... there's no mistaking it."

So, this Kaguya person was the Sage's mother... a goddess of such power that the old man was talking about her in such manner... and Team Seven defeated her, deciding to keep her existence secret. But how...? Even Madara seemed to be overboard, and Naruto and Sasuke... sure, they were incredibly strong... but this...? On top of that, this woman once had used the Inifinite Tsukuyomi... such catastrophe already happened before...

"Now... what about you, Sasuke?" The sage asked, finally turning to the Uchiha who closed his eyes and bowed his head, stepping forward.

"Let me see... but first..." His eyes snapped open, gazing at Kurama. "I will put the Gokage out of their misery."

Kakashi gasped; Sakura looked at her teammate in disbelief, and Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he didn't look surprised.

"What... did Sasuke say?" Hatake muttered, looking at his former student with anger.

"Also... tailed beasts! You will be put under my control... I will destroy you as well when the time comes." The incredibly huge wave of chakra came from Sasuke's left eye, almost making Hinata tremble. Was this his true power...? She never imagined that her companion was this strong...

"What did you say, brat?!" Kurama growled, raising his palm to crush the Uchiha, but he didn't make it in time: his eyes took the form of Sasuke's Rinengan, as well as the eyes of the other tailed beasts.

Just like that Uzumaki woman from Uzhiogakure, Sasuke put them all under such a strong genjutsu... with a single glance...?

Now it began making sense that they've defeated someone like that Kaguya woman...

"Naruto... so it has come to this. You're the only one I could leave things to now... I've reached my limit and can't stay here any longer... I'll disappear soon..." The sage uttered with apparent sadness in his voice.

"Yeah... I'm really sorry, old man, but... I won't be anything like your children... we're different from the Indra and Ashura that you knew!" The Uzumaki boy yelled with much confidence.

 _Indra... and Ashura?_

"Sasuke! Are you saying that's what you want?! Are you still hung up on getting your revenge?!"

"Sasuke-kun...!"

The Uchiha turned his head to Kakashi and Sakura, looking absolutely calm.

"Sure, back then, the only thing I wanted was pure destruction. My only wish was revenge. But it's different now. I will destroy and rebuild. Rebuild a new world for us! One that cannot be tainted by darkness. What I'm pushing for... is a revolution."

 _A revolution...?_ Was this what really was deep inside Sasuke's soul...? She could never imagine it... and if this was a vision from the past, which was more than likely... could she now say that she really knew him at all?

The raven haired boy clapped his hands, another huge burst of chakra coming out of his body.

The land around them shattered, the huge pieces of it raising up in the air and covering the bodies of the tailed beats, lifting them up.

"Naruto... help.." Kurama quietly growled, using the last pieces of his willpower before his face was covered by another rock.

"I'll save you! Just wait for me a little!"

The nine spheres created by Sasuke which imprisoned the bijū now formed a perfect round high in the sky, above the clouds.

"I've learned how to control the Rinnegan a lot better after this battle... and now, most of the obstacles are gone...except for you, Naruto."

The sage sighed deeply.

"Things never go just the way you want, huh... leaving power to only one caused Indra and Ashura... but even with division of power, the result remains the same."

Naruto jumped to get closer to Sasuke, landing just a few yards away from his friend.

"No... the brothers' feud will end now!"

* * *

She gasped, falling down from her bed and looking at the ceiling, her face covered with sweat. The girl's breath was hard and short – she was doubting what she's just seen. Or why she saw it, to be precise.

The reply came almost immediately: Hinata felt the searing burning on her neck, where the seal of Sasuke and Orochimaru was placed.

It was probably _his_ chakra... it made her see his memories, revealing so many things the girl could never imagine before...

And everything became so confusing now...

First, this Kaguya person. She didn't care much about the woman: apparently they've got rid of her, and considering everything Hinata heard on the matter, she had no desire to know anything more about the goddess.

Next, Indra and Ashura... the sage was talking about Naruto and Sasuke as of these two, who were his own children. But that made no sense – they were her peers, weren't they? And the sage was an ancient relic of the past... a legend. And Madara, as well as the First Hokage... he called them Naruto and Sasuke's predecessors. What could it possibly mean...? But he certainly called Naruto and Sasuke Ashura and Indra. Was this a kind of metaphor? Or a referring to the power he gave them?  
This could be the case. That's how they got all this power in such a short time. The sage gave it to them. And Madara, as well as Hashirama... the predecessors. It's likely that they were the previous ones to receive the sage's power, considering their power and the legends about the two men.

But why them, exactly? If Sasuke most certainly was connected with Madara somehow, of that she had no doubt by now, Naruto looked nothing like the Shodai Hokage, and had none of his powers. So why the two of them? Why did the sage chose them?

There had to be a missing link here, something that would explain everything, that would solve the puzzle...

And then there was Sasuke's revolution... he never mentioned his past plans to her. Not even once. All he cared for now was protecting Konoha and reviving his clan... what happened after what she saw?

Did he and Naruto fight? Was this how they've lost their arms? And after this fight, both of them changed quite a bit... even though only with Sasuke it was clearly notable, Naruto changed, too.

She remembered how they looked like back when she nearly overheard the talk of the two friends, when the girl decided to follow Sasuke away from the village. Naruto looked much different from his usual self there...

And now the Uchiha trusted in Naruto's intentions and plans. Whatever happened after the events in her vision, apparently the Uzumaki managed to convince Sasuke that he could take care of the world in his own way.

But was this even right? Sasuke's desire for a revolution... if she heard and saw it back then, it would most likely scare her to death. But now, it only made her realize once again how much alike she and Sasuke were.

And... was this really wrong? Their world, the system they were all parts of... it was rotten, corrupted beyond saving. What Naruto possibly hoped to achieve? Why did Sasuke agree with his friend in the end?!

If he wanted to start a revolution now... after everything what happened, after everything she saw... Hinata was more than sure that she'd become his most loyal supporter.

The world needed to change. And right now, it was merely getting back to what it was before the war. Which meant that another war, another hundred wars were inevitable.

Nothing would change at this rate.

But... what If they managed to change it?

She wasn't Sasuke. She had no power, neither literally nor figuratively, to pull something like this. She wasn't a leader, she was a follower.

But apparently the Uchiha didn't want it anymore. Or didn't he?

Perhaps he was plotting something all along?

Hinata could only hope that he did, because...

Because if he did, she would have another purpose in her life.

She hugged her knees, looking in the darkness of the winter night behind the window, only the swirl of snow visible to the girl since her Byakugan wasn't activated.

Before anything else, she needed to wait for him to return. At least she had plenty of time to think about everything in his absence...

* * *

"I'm repeating, Hokage-sama. If you continue with this policy, we'll stumble upon a huge trouble with the council of my clan. This has to stop right now! Tsunade-sama, please, at least you must understand this!" Hyūga Hiashi slammed his fist onto the Hokage's table, making the lonely cup of coffee jump up and almost spill the now cold drink onto Hatake's pants.

"Behave, brat... I mustn't do anything at all. If anything, Kakashi's position seems pretty reasonable to me. Your clan is the strongest in Konoha, isn't it right? As far as I remember, you always liked to shout about it here and there. And considering all the mess, you're the only ones who can handle the hardest tasks right now. What are you trying to prove here? I'd rather not waste the Hokage's time." The blond woman crossed her arms under her huge chest, gazing at the Hyūga with uncovered displease.

The man growled in anger, raising his tone:

"Why can't you understand?! We've lost twelve ninja during the last month, ten of them being from the Main House. We can't afford it! This is too much!"

"How cute of you to talk about your family as if of some expensive arrows in your quiver..." Tsunade smirked, leaning onto the desk of Kakashi who crossed his fingers before his masked face, silently gazing at the raging man.

"Such disrespect...!"

"I never said that I respected you, brat. Or did I? Maybe I did, but mind you, this was due to my job. Now I'm not a Kage anymore, so it's a relief to finally be able to tell the truth. You, along with your family, are the ninjas of the leaf. And, like you said yourself, you're the strongest. Do you even realize that you behave like a coward right now?"

His face became red – Hiashi looked as if he was ready to explode.

"You know damn well that the strongest clan right now is the Uchiha! And I don't see him solving any of these problems at all. Last thing I heard, he abducted my daughter and did gods know what to her...!

Kakashi glanced at him dangerously, finally opening his mouth and exclaiming calmly:

"These are only rumors, and you know it better than anyone. Sasuke is assigned for the mission that nobody else in the village is capable of executing."

Hiashi turned away, silently cursing.

"Then you have the Uzumaki kid... why not him?"

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, and it wasn't clear if he was smiling or getting irritated under his mask right now.

"Then again, you of all people know better than me that Naruto is doing more than anyone else."

"Then you're an incompetent leader! You're wasting our people's lives only to defend, yet you do nothing to solve the problem permanently!"

Kakashi cocked his head sideways, looking at the man with obvious joy in the eyes now.

"Careful, Hiashi-sama. This sounds dangerously like the words of a treason. Am I to consider your clan not loyal to Konoha anymore? Or it's just you who I should focus my attention on?"

Hiashi suddenly stopped, apparently realizing that he's crossed some lines. The man bowed down, mumbling:

"I'm terribly sorry, Hokage-sama. This is nothing like that. I just... please, understand me. I am responsible for my family, and I understand everything, but... I can't stand seeing so many of them dying without any real purpose..."

Kakashi's and Tsunade's eyes met for a second, both of them looking at each other with a sort of silent understanding of something, and then Hatake cleared his throat before uttering:

"I understand you, Hiashi-sama. And I assure you that I understand your feelings, too. But we can't help it. Right now, we're on the verge of another war, even though a much more local then the previous one, but it can be even more destructive considering how weakened we still are. It's the sacred debt of everyone in Konoha to be ready to give their lives for the sake of the others. And I would do it before anyone else, of that you can be sure."

The doors to the office opened, making Tsunade and Kakashi smirk and Hiashi, who turned his head slightly to check who came to disturb their conversation in such a moment, flinched in surprise.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama, Tsunade-sama. I will follow your orders, and so will my clan. This conversation won't happen again. Now, if you don't mind, I have some issues to solve..."

He turned away, meeting the sole visible eye of the newcomer who looked at him without any visible interest. Just like always.

"Yeah... you're dismissed, Hiashi-san. Sasuke, please, enter. Sit down. We have a lot of stuff to discuss."

The Uchiha passed the Hyūga patriarch without showing any sign of emotion, and sat down to the chair near the window.

They waited for a few seconds before the doors closed, and then Kakashi finally uttered:

"It's nice to see you're alright, Sasuke. You look better than before."

"Thanks." He simply replied.

Hatake looked as if he didn't know where to start, which made the Uchiha think that it was probably much easier for his former teacher to write the letters than to talk to him directly.

"My student is alright, too. She's waiting for me in Tanzaku-gai; as you already know, we were on the way to Amegakure when I received your invitation for this talk. I decided that it's not a great idea for her to come back yet. Would be no good if she met her father a minute ago." He added, trying to clear the air between the three of them.

Kakashi slowly nodded, and Tsunade's features visibly relaxed.

"That's good to know. But the reason why I called you back for this speech is actually because of your destination. You see, we're in a rather troublesome situation right now... unlike the other villages, we're not only suffering the outcome of the war, but we also have to deal with the damage caused by Pain. Without you and Naruto, we're the weakest hidden village there is right now. Which makes us a very vulnerable target to everyone else."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. That was pretty obvious, but it still was unclear where the Sixths was leading this conversation to.

"But that's not the only problem here... we have quite a few inner struggles, too. The biggest of them being the Hyūga clan."

"And how exactly are you going to handle them? You didn't explain it in your messages." Sasuke asked curiously, which still looked weird to Kakashi. Did Hinata's company make him so civilized? It was almost a pleasure to have conversation with his former student now...

"Well, right now I'm assigning the worst of them to the suicide missions, to be honest. It's sort of justified, since they are ones of the strongest in the village right now... but, of course, them not returning back from the missions can be called settled. It won't help to get rid of the most influential and powerful of them, they are very careful with their lives and I don't control the clan heads' mission schedule. They can only volunteer themselves, I can't order them to take a mission. That makes it impossible to get rid of their leader using this way. Fortunately we've come up with some"

The Uchiha smirked.

"How inappropriate, Hokage-sama... what if somebody finds out?"

"The two of us already found out, brat. See? Nothing happened." Tsunade suddenly snapped, picking her own cup of coffee and taking a sip.

"Well, clearly I was talking about the less sharp minds in the village. Don't you think somebody can eventually figure it out?"

So he was even able to understand jokes and to joke himself now? Hatake wasn't prepared for such changes...

"They can. It also works as a taunt – I'm trying to force the leaders of the clan to make a mistake which would allow us to take the right to legitimately intervene in their inner dealings. But this is a huge risk. I don't want another clan massacre in my village."

That was perfectly understandable. Even though this specific clan deserved to be destroyed, the Uchiha didn't want history to repeat itself.

"And what are you planning to do?"

The Sixth smirked behind his mask.

"This brings us to the main part of my plan. But before explaining it to you, I have to ask: what's the current level of Hinata? What have you taught her?"

So his plans were going to concern her as well... no wonder, though. It was her clan to begin with. But what if Kakashi lied to him? What if he was going to make her another Itachi? To force her to destroy her own clan, which, unlike his deceased brother, she would probably do gladly?

He had to be careful on agreeing with whatever the gray haired man was to offer.

"She's high level jōnin in taijutsu, low level jōnin in ninjutsu, chūnin level in genjutsu as she can break out of the simple Sharingan genjutsu. Her spying and stealth skills are splendid; she also has signed a summoning contract, mastered fire and lightning elements to the point of being capable of executing two S-rank techniques, and, on top of everything else, she received a cursed seal. It was inevitable, since this was the only way to cure her from that Hyūga drug. The chakra in the seal in mine, not Orochimaru's." Kakashi and Tsunade looked a bit shocked by what he listed, yet still didn't say anything on the matter, preferring to trust the Uchiha.

"Fine, then she's more than capable of this mission I'm going to give to the two of you. Now, listen. The situation in the world right now is pretty complicated. During the last Gokage Summit, we all have signed the certain agreement. None of the countries are to attack another, be it one of the Great Five or the smaller ones. Unless we want the truce to break, we can only defend ourselves, which is getting harder and harder considering our current situation. It would be rather easy to send you and Naruto to vanquish our enemies, but... this would lead us to another great war, and it would most certainly be the and for Konoha, not to mention that we don't want any war what so ever."

 _Of course you don't._ This fragile peace was everything that held him from going back to his previous plan of uniting the world.

Is _that what you think, Kakashi?_

"And who is causing so much trouble for us?" Kakashi flinched as he noticed that Sasuke said _us_ , not _you_. He actually considered himself a part of Konoha for real...

"Amegakure. It turns like the last Akatsuki member, that girl named Konan, got herself killed at some point, we don't know when and how exactly. And we also have zero information of what's going on in the village right now. But they cause surprise attacks at our objects thoughout the whole Fire Country nearly every night, not to mention the constant robbery of the trading ways." Tsunade replied, looking at the Uchiha as if she was estimating his words, but not appearing as surprised as the Sixth did.

So it's Amegakure... that's why Kakashi wanted to give him a mission there, since he warned the Hokage that he was going to the village of the rain anyway.

"Fine. What do I have to do?" He asked as calm as before, yet frowning a little.

Kakashi finally smiled, raising up from his desk.

"You're going to be the keystone to our plan. We're going to kill all our targets with a single blow, but this isn't going to be easy. If anything, truth to be told, I believe you're the only one who's capable to pull it." He took the cup and went to the small coffee machine in the corner of the room. It was already late night, so no wonder that he needed some energy, especially considering how serious their conversation was.

"Pull what, exactly?" Perhaps now he sounded a little irritated, but that was understandable – Sasuke didn't like to waste time on empty words.

"Just a second..." The Sixth turned his head to the closed window as he was filling his cup with the hot drink. "You may enter now, we're ready to discuss our plans."

The window slid open, and a figure dressed in a wide, formless hooded coat slipped inside the room, landing onto the knee.

"I'm at your service, Hokage-sama." The young, tingeing female voice echoed in the room.

"Please, close the window and take your cover off. We may talk freely here."

The person did as Kakashi ordered, taking off her hood.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're..." He remembered her clearly from Hinata's memories. What on earth was this girl doing here right now...?

"Hanabi Hyūga, Uchiha-sama. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." She smiled with the corners of her mouth, and it didn't seem fake to him. Was this some kind of a game?

He turned his head to the current and the previous Hokage, waiting for the explanation.

"What's going on here?" He snapped, finally showing a sign of emotion.

"Relax, Sasuke. She's on our side. You should listen to Hanabi, I'm pretty sure you'll be interested in what she's going to say."

He peered at the young brown haired girl, who looked at him with apparent respect, for a few seconds before finally grunting:

"Fine. Go ahead."

Hanabi bowed her head before she started talking:

"First of all, please, let me thank you for what you did for my older sister. After everything that happened, I'm owe you too much for saving her from the horrible destiny that my father wanted for her."

The Uchiha glanced at Kakashi with anger in his eyes. Didn't they agree that nobody aside from the few of them was supposed to know about all this...?

"I don't know how can I repay you for that, but know that you have my respect and unquestionable loyalty. Should I live up to become the leader of the Hyūga, I swear on my life that my clan will be a loyal ally for the Uchiha Clan as well. But here is where starts the problem that we must solve if we want to get rid of the current Hyūga leaders and change the clan."

Change the clan...? What made this little fool think that someone like he wanted to nurse their pathetic asses...? If anything, it would be logical to expect him to purge all of them before anything else.

"Cut the crap. I don't want to waste my time any longer, Kakashi was enough."

Tsunade smirked – apparently she liked Sasuke's manner of dealing with things, and she seemingly didn't trust Hanabi that much, either.  
The girl sighed, lowering her white eyes which looked so much like Hinata's.

"I understand that you won't trust me that easily... but I have nobody else to come to ask for help. As the only proof I have to my allegiance, I'm aware that Hinata is traveling with you... being taught by you, Uchiha-sama. Yet none of my clansmen knows this. And they won't know it unless you or her want it."

That sounded rather reasonable, and Sasuke calmed down a little, but he still certainly didn't like to deal with any Hyūga. Until now, they only brought him trouble, and the Uchiha doubted that it's ever going to change.

"I told you to go on."

She nodded, clenching her fists and paling a little – the girl clearly felt nervous.

"When I found out what father did to Hinata, it made me realize a lot of things. I now understand how corrupted my clan is, and I hate them. I hate it's leaders, I hate my father. I want them all gone. So I, along with Hokage-sama here, developed the plan to overthrow the council of my clan, and, at the same time, get rid of all those who support the current system that exists within our family. Once we've accomplished it, I will become the clan's head, and the Hyūga won't have to be eradicated completely, since I'm going to negate the distinction between the Branch House and the Main House members. I intend to create a healthy, strong clan like the Uchiha once was, the clan that will support Konoha without the cowardice that my father supports so much, covering the Main House's asses behind the Branch House members who are being forced to die for them." Her eyes were filled with determination, and Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. Now he believed that she was telling the truth.

But it didn't make this girl any less naive. A clan like the Uchiha? She certainly didn't know what she's talking about.

"That sounds good and well, but how exactly are you going to make it? What does it have to do with Amegakure?" He turned to Kakashi, slowly beginning to realize where they were leading to.

"My plan is to use you and Hinata to infiltrate the village of the rain and overthrow it's government, whatever it currently is. You must take the complete control over this small country; this way, we'll be able to stop the majority of the attacks that are draining our resources nowadays, and, at the same time, we'll be controlling a very important territory without breaking the agreement with the other Great Countries. To do so, you will reform the group that ruled the Rain country for decades... The Akatsuki."

The Uchiha clenched his teeth, nearly roaring in the sudden burst of rage.

"So this is where it's going, Kakashi? You want me to become a pawn in your arsenal, just like Itachi was in the hands of the Third? Do you even realize what's going to happen once the Gokage find out that I've joined Akatsuki again, let alone lead it?!" He shouted, getting up from his chair.

Kakashi raised his hands in a conciliatory.

"Please, Sasuke, let me finish. It's nothing like this, I swear."

For a few seconds, the raven haired boy was glaring at the Hokage, rapidly deciding what to do, but then he finally sat back to the chair.

"Fine. Go ahead. But remember that if I dislike what you're about to say, I'll wipe all of you from the surface of the earth."

"And that would actually be understandable, Kakashi... you should've chosen the words wiser." Tsunade obviously didn't fear Sasuke at all; if anything, she was clearly having fun in this situation.

The Sixth sighed.

"I will notify every other Kage that you're going for a top-secret mission to destroy the remains of Akatsuki and secure peace in Amegakure. We won't betray you, Sasuke. Not now, when you've finally returned."

And this was when Sasuke realized that he still didn't trust Konoha one bit. Even though he could say that he relatively trusted Kakashi as a person, the man was still a part of this corrupted system that he and Naruto wanted to change, each in his own way.

But then again... did they really have an option to betray him? They weren't aware of the fact that he, as well as Naruto, had lost a significant part of the power that the Sage of the Six Paths gave them. Even though he probably still could deal with the majority of shinobi in the world, even simultaneously, Sasuke realized that there was no chance for him to defeat all of them if they united against him like they did against Madara.

But they didn't know that. To them, he still was someone completely out of their league. And giving him his own Hidden Village to lead, even though temporary, made their chances against him little to nonexistent.

No, they weren't going to betray him. Kakashi was telling the truth.

"Alright. I believe you. We're going to recreate the Akatsuki and capture Amegakure. What's next?"

Hatake smiled under his mask, still feeling insecure with his former student, desperately wanting him to believe in their good intentions.

"When you're done with this, we will use the highest ranks of my clan to launch an attack against the criminal organisation, the members of which are being wanted by the whole world. Knowing our fathe, once he finds out that Hinata is alive and she's a member of Akatsuki, his pride will force him to deal with her on his own. It will be a perfect opportunity to get rid of him, along with the other clansmen of the high rank who are going to be killed in the process, leaving me the only one who can take the leadership of the clan. You and my sister will be declared heroes who helped us get rid of this threat, Konoha will be safe again, and I will have no obstacles on my way of changing the clan." Hanabi finally finished, still looking a bit scared by Sasuke's sudden outburst.

Now the Uchiha had to admit that Kakashi was indeed a great strategist. That was a brilliant plan... considering how powerful Sasuke was, the task to take control over Ame was nothing. And after that point, everything was going to be rather easy...

"What about Naruto?" He suddenly asked, looking at the three of them.

Tsunade sighed.

"I say he shouldn't know anything for now... especially since we're already trying to keep him as busy as possible on the border of our countries. But it's up for you to decide, Kakashi."

The masked shinobi nodded.

"I agree. At this point, he can ruin the whole plan, knowing how passionate and stubborn he usually is... I entrust this job to you, Sasuke. Believe me, I understand your feelings, and even though I realize that I'm putting Konoha's fate into your grasp... you're the only one capable of making it, especially considering that you once were a member of Akatsuki, and now that you have the Rinnegan, it will be fairly easy to convince their shinobi that you're destined to lead them. So please... save us all."

The Uchiha got up from his chair.

"I understand we're done talking?"

Hatake was silent for a few seconds before quietly replying:

"Yes. It's settled."

"Fine then."

He didn't say anything else, and, without looking at anyone in the room, the Uchiha passed through the doorway before suddenly stopping, slightly turning his head.

"I'm a man of a mission, Kakashi. Since I accepted it, it will be accomplished. What you really should care about is keeping your part of this deal."

He walked out, coming close to one of the windows in the corridor that led to the exit from the building, and then he suddenly heard Hanabi's voice behind his back.

"Uchiha-sama, please, wait a second!" He turned his head, facing the blushing Hyūga that quickly followed him.

"What is it?" He snapped, eying her with his dark eye impatiently.

"I... you see, do you know what day is it tomorrow?"

He shrugged indifferently.

"Twenty-something of December... why?"

She took a deep breath before uttering:

"I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but it will be my sister's birthday... I'm sorry, I don't know what your relationship with her is, but what I wanted to ask you is... well..." She lowered her eyes to the floor, embarrassed. "I can't send her any present, since it can ruin everything you worked on... but... if it's not too much to ask... can you give her something? A gift? Not from me, of course, bur from yourself..."

He could now see that Hanabi truly cared about her older sibling, as well as that she was pretty intelligent. And he didn't know that it's going to be Hinata's birthday... this girl turned to be really useful.

The Uchiha gave her a barely notable smile.

"Alright. I can do it."

She flinched in surprise, meeting his now warm eyes.

"Really?! Thank you so much!" But he already jumped out of the window.

* * *

The silence of the night in the forest between Konoha and Tanzaku-gai was being ruined by a few shinobi jumping from one branch to another, staying silent for the most part of their trip, ignoring the rising snowstorm around them.

There were only five of them, each wearing Konoha's standard shinobi uniform, yet still they looked very similar to each other, especially when it came to their eyes and long, straight hair.

"Hiashi-sama, are you certain that we'll be able to make it in time? He might have already left..."

The leader of the Hyūga clan shortly shook his head.

"No. My informant is there. His message states that it's a matter of the utmost importance, so hurry up. We're already close."

The man nodded, doing as he was told by his superior, yet still frowning a little.

Whatever was awaiting them there, something told the young Hyūga that it's not going to be a walk in a park.


	11. The True Kunoichi

**Chapter 11. The True Kunoichi**

Years later, the citizens of Tanzaku-gai would remember that night as the coldest one in decades. Despite this fact, for most of them this memory would be a pleasant one – they couldn't really explain why or describe it narrowly, but despite the extremely strong snowstorm, almost everyone in the town had that strange feeling of comfort, of something mysterious, or even fairy, something from their childhood that was raising the memories they couldn't quite grasp, only a haze of happy emotions flowing up from the depths of their hearts.  
That would go for nearly everyone in Tanzaku-gai that night.

Except for the girl that was foreign to this place.

Hinata sighed, trying to warm her hands for the tenth time that cold, dark and lonely night, aimlessly scanning the town itself and the area around Tanzaku-gai with her Byakugan and waiting for Sasuke's return. For some reason, with the snowstorm getting more and more powerful outside, the bad feeling in her guts was getting stronger as well. Despite the weather, everything looked absolutely peaceful for her – the majority of people were already asleep, and some strangers that were still wandering here and there were either too drunk to find their way home or to a flophouse, or they were looking for a place to continue having fun. Yet still, for some reason, the girl didn't feel well at all, being constantly on guard the whole night, barely able to force herself to take a nap, especially after that vision she had, which, she presumed, contained Sasuke's memories about the ending of the war.

Hours were running one after another, and the Uchiha wasn't showing up. What was taking him so long? According to his words, he had to get back approximately an hour ago. Did something happen to him in Konoha? Did they decide to imprison him for helping her, or for his own past crimes? Or for something else he did that she wasn't aware of...?

No, there was no way for them to be able to hold him there by force. He was far too powerful for everyone in the village, even for the Hokage. Then it had to be something urgent... Sasuke usually was very punctual and precise, so there had to be a very good reason. Hinata learned it first hand long ago, in the beginning of their training, since he always demanded the same from his student.

She suddenly smiled, hugging herself and slightly trembling of cold. Just a few months ago she would've definitely thought that he decided to leave her. Right now, such thought didn't even cross her mind.  
Hinata trusted the Uchiha. She had no doubt that he was a man of his word, and that he actually cared for her.

Which meant he would definitely be back soon.

She frowned. For some reason, the familiar feeling raised inside of her again, making the girl feel confused, just like it did every time it appeared ever since they've left the ruins of Uzushiogakure. And it only became stronger after she watched that memory of his.

It was pretty simple, yet complicated at the same time - she wanted to hug the Uchiha, to feel the warmth of his body, to feel that she wasn't alone.

And this desire, which she believed was pretty innocent, made her feel uneasy.

That just wasn't right. She was his tool, not his friend, relative or a lover. A scampish student at best...

Basically, she was nobody to him. She had no right to show nor feel this kind of affection towards Sasuke. And he certainly didn't need it... at least not on regular basis. Recalling that rare moment of weakness in the insane old woman's house, it was obvious that he just needed somebody to comfort him. Anyone, not her specifically.

But that wasn't just it.

She was different from her past self now.

Although her allegiance to the Uchiha was out of the question, she now also had her own goals and ambitions. Hinata didn't want to let any weakness in her heart anymore. Serving Sasuke, or even dying for him, would be perfectly fine after everything he did for her. It was a matter of honor, actually, and she certainly considered herself an honest and honorable person.

But feelings for him... she didn't want them. Yet, being realistic... was it possible to avoid it?

He was everything for her right now: her master, her senior, her accomplice, her best friend... now, after months spent on talking to each other, sometimes about very private matters, it would be stupid to deny it. She probably already knew him better than everyone else alive, and the realization of the fact that there were still so many things about him she had yet to find out made her feel amazed by how complicated and complex was the person the girl called her master.

But that day in the Land of Whirlpools changed everything, making her feel the things neither of them wanted nor needed.

And she tried to suppress them as best as she could.

But that night, when everyone around looked so happy, cheerful and peaceful, reminding her of the night when she had left the village... without anything or anyone around to at least talk, to distract herself from the bad thoughts... she so wanted him to come back as soon as possible, to at least touch his hand... to see that he was alright...

The rogue Hyūga shook her head and gritted her teeth in the burst frustration and anger.

She needed to control her emotions. She was a kunoichi now, not the stupid, weak girl from the past. Truth to be told, that one was her nightmare now. There weren't many things that she feared, but her past image... it stalked her in her dreams, sometimes making the Hyūga wake up in the middle of a night in cold sweat, breathing hard.  
Hinata wanted to bury her past for good. She didn't want anything to remind herself of what she was before she met the Uchiha.

Groaning, the kunoichi hit the wooden wall with her fist. Could she get Sasuke out of her head for at least a minute, for gods' sake?!

But then the girl flinched, noticing something strange and focusing her dōjutsu on the fringe on the shortest way to Konoha. There stood a man who looked quite familiar to her... where did she see him before...?

So they found her, after all. But...

Hinata gasped as the sudden realization hit her. He was her clansman from the Main House, an ANBU spy. And his own Byakugan was activated... peering directly at her. And it was obvious that he was waiting for something... or someone?

Slowly getting up, she yawned, stretching her arms as if she was ignorant of the fact that somebody was watching her, trying to not even turn her head in the direction of the man. Picking up her newly bought warm coat with fur lining, the Hyūga went outside of the hotel room, getting downstairs and yawning again, afraid to raise any suspicions in the spy's mind.

"Oi, Hina-sama! Are you leaving already?" The cheerful, strong-built, white haired and gray eyed barman in his mid twenties with a small beard asked, waving to her with his hand that was still holding an empty beer cup.

"Yes, Tōji-san. I totally forgot that Sasuke asked me to buy him something, so I need to get it before he comes back... I don't wanna make him angry because of my stupidity."

Hinata noticed with her Byakugan that the spy's eyes widened as she mentioned the Uchiha's name. So he was reading her lips' movements... _damn it_... she needed to get rid of him as soon as possible, but any rush would alarm him that he's been spotted...

And then she flinched, fighting the urge to start shaking.

Hiashi Hyūga, accompanied by his four bodyguards, was quickly approaching the ANBU, being only a mile away from him at the moment.

She needed to take him down before he revealed her connection with Sasuke to her father.

"Oh! I see! I hope you'll be staying here for a couple more days, Hina-sama! You're such a cutie!" The barman winked to her, but the black haired girl didn't seem to notice his compliment, turning around and waving him a goodbye without looking at him.

Getting outside of the relatively warm hall, she squinted, wrapping the coat as tight as she could. It was really cold out there, so no wonder that only very few people were still present on the street that was usually filled even this late at night...

Lazily gazing around as if she was looking for some specific store, she slowly walked towards the gates that were the closest to her target for what seemed like good five minutes, and then, after confirming that the man didn't get any suspicious, she rapidly accelerated, jumping over the wall and rushing towards him as fast as she could.

Fortunately her training with Sasuke brought quite some results - the man, astonished by the sudden attack, wasn't able to react in time, so she easily knocked him down, disarming and breaking his hand the same instant, making the spy's face sink in snow.

"How did you know I was here?! I'm supposed to be dead to the clan and the village. Answer now, or I'll kill you!" She growled with unusual hatred in her voice, grabbed his hair and raising the man's head just high enough for him to be able to talk.

Apparently he desperately tried to suppress the scream of sudden searing pain, quietly groaning in response:

"I won't tell you anything, you traitor... you can kill me, but you'll be dead in no time, too. Although I'm pretty sure that you can see it yourself... they are close." He grinned, gasping as her knee landed hard between his shoulder blades, making the man's spine make a loud, dangerous sound.

"You all underestimate me too much... but you won't ever know how bad you are mistaken. Farewell." She then let his hair, grabbing both of the man's hands and, putting her foot onto his back, she broke it a second later, ending his life nearly instantly.

And just a few seconds later, Hiashi showed up from the darkness of the forest, landing a few yards away from her and his now dead subordinate.

She had no doubt that her father had seen everything seeing as his Byakugan was activated, so Hinata decided to spare the futile talk, jumping away from the corpse and taking her new standard fighting stance. At least she managed to make the spy take the information about Sasuke helping her to his afterlife. This way, even if she was to die there that night, the Uchiha would remain innocent in the eyes of the council of Konoha, as well as in the eyes of her own clan. And she knew that he couldn't afford being accused for anything criminal at all after all the things he had done.

"Daughter."

Hinata didn't reply, refusing to acknowledge the man before her as her father, calmly gazing in his white, empty irises instead.

The other four looked indifferent, but knowing the ways of disciplining in their clan, the girl could easily read the hidden expression of shock and disbelief, along with disgust on their faces. They weren't afraid of her, though – each deactivated his Byakugan, apparently not considering her a threat.

Same went for Hiashi who smirked, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"If only I knew that you'd become worthy being put under such circumstances... we could've avoided all this." He uttered, sighing.

"Hiashi-sama, please, let me deal with her...! She's killed Hoshi!" The one who she now remembered to be the twin of the man who she's just killed cried, giving up on his mask and looking at her with uncovered, passionate hatred now. Was his name Heshi...?

The tradition of her clan to name the twins similarly always seemed ridiculous to the girl. Now, come to think of it, considering the amount of tragic, ironic and laughable things about the Hyūga, her whole clan was just one big, cruel joke.

"Seize her. I want to know who helped her to trick Kō... as well as survive the _Saigo no Yume_. Although I have my suspicions, I need the confirmation to convince the Sixth."

And then she noticed it - the opening. Hoshi was too overwhelmed by emotions over his brother's death, and so he let his guard down for a second, looking at Hiashi resentfully, still without his dōjutsu activated.

And that was more than ample for her.

Charging forward with the highest speed she could take, Hinata sliced Heshi's throat with a kunai, jumping to the side the instant she did so to avoid the multiple attacks directed at her by the other three bodyguards.

Hiashi silently observed her movements with his eyes wide open, clearly having a hard time believing that his wimpy weakling of a daughter has just mercilessly slain the two shinobi from her own clan.

"That's some speed... apparently you are taught by someone strong. I'm curious, who is your new master? Could you tell me?" The clan's head said with apparent joy in his voice, and this was when Hinata's own impassive mask gave a crack, making the girl greet her teeth in the rising anger.

"Is this the only thing you care about now, when your subordinates from your family are being killed?!" She shouted, dodging a few shurikens sent by the three surviving jōnin.

The man shrugged indifferently.

"If they are so weak that even _you_ can kill them effortlessly, considering their rank, they are a shame to the clan, nothing else. Your changes concern me much more at the moment."

 _So he was trying to taunt her... oh, well..._

She calmed down, recalling what Sasuke always taught her above everything else – keeping calm and collected was more important than anything in a fight.

"I have nothing to hide, but I don't want to tell you anything, either. Perhaps you'd like to figure it out on your own, _father_? If you're brave enough to keep up, of course..." She quietly uttered, weaving a few hand signs.

The man's face twisted, and then he laughed, raising his palm and thus commanding the Hyūga ANBU to back off.

"Fair enough... it's getting more and more curious. I wonder... here is my offer for you. I will fight you, and no one else will interfere. But it will be a fight to death. Do you realize that you won't survive it, daughter?"

She smirked. He took the bait, and he did it so easily... was Sasuke truly correct when he said that the elders of her clan were merely a bunch of old, prideful and cruel fools who had nothing but assurance in their exclusiveness, which, in reality, made them a mere mediocrity?

"Hardly. But I accept your preposition." Hinata formed the Seal of Confrontation with her right arm, not moving her gaze away from her father.

Hiashi hesitated for a second, but then he smiled grimly, confidently striding towards the girl and forming the same seal himself.

"For the first time in your life, you're making me proud, daughter... I hope you won't disappoint me this time." He smirked, clearly not taking her serious.

The other three Hyūga shinobi visibly relaxed in preparation of their duel, apparently absolutely sure that nothing threatened them at the moment.

And that was their grave mistake.

Performing the _Shunshin no Jutsu_ , Hinata disappeared, and then the two of them screamed in terrible pain as she pierced the back of one of them with her kunai, and, before the other one could react, she gripped his head from behind, breaking his neck with a disgusting cracking sound.

The whole action didn't take Hinata more than three seconds to return to her previous spot.

"Never underestimate your foe, no matter what. Isn't it the basics... father?" She asked as calm as before, seeing as Hiashi finally dropped his smug and prideful face, becoming infuriated by her simple bluff. It was obvious that she stood no chance against the five of them at the same time, yet still the girl somehow managed to fool them two times by now, dramatically decreasing their number and thus negating their advantage.

"I can see you've become a true kunoichi... sneaky and cunning, you've learned to hide your emotions and intentions. Let's see if you also have the strength to back up your insolence!" Now Hinata finally had to shape up – if she reacted to his attack a split second later, Hiashi's palm would've smashed her skull without a doubt.

But there was one more distraction of which she had to get rid of – the sole surviving bodyguard who attacked her at the same time as Hiashi. As far as she could remember, he was Kō's childhood friend named Haruki, and this shinobi was pretty strong. But the idea of killing him was quite exciting to her – considering the circumstances, that was a nice way of getting her revenge for what Kō tried to do with her.

Barely able to avoid the continuous barrage of their jūken strikes, Hinata jumped up to the high tree, channeling the chakra into her fists. Although Sasuke recommended her to not use this technique in real combat again for a while, she had no choice right now – the girl doubted that she'd be able to defeat her father yet, only counting on disabling him for some time to be able to flee, so she couldn't risk showing him any lightning techniques, especially Chidori, the Uchiha's signature jutsu. It would certainly give Sasuke away... after all, her father was anything but an idiot.

But then she noticed Haruki storming towards her up the tree, going ahead of Hiashi. Apparently his impatience and desire to bring her to his leader was really strong... and, considering that he was from the Main House, it would probably indeed give him some benefits in future. Despite his awful nature, no one could deny that the clan's head truly worshiped those who were useful to him.

Unfortunately for the bodyguard, though, his fate was already sealed the second he decided to waste all his power on his charge – in order to get to her as swiftly as possible, he sacrificed his focus and attention... after all, speed was never the highest priority in the Hyūga traditional fighting school.

Stopping the jutsu preparation sequence, Hinata scratched her finger on the bark of the tree, and then she suddenly changed her direction and jumped to the nearest branch, instantly turning around, only to find the bodyguard's stomach just before her eyes – exactly as the kunoichi expected, the man didn't react to her sudden move in time, inertially continuing to move up the tree.

" _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_ " Hinata slammed her palm into Haruki's abdomen, his body being covered with the concentric pattern of the summoning seal.

Apparently he didn't even realize what was happening to him before it was already too late. The man's horrible, heartbreaking scream of unbearable pain filled the forest as his body was being torn apart from the inside by the giant white snake, only a little bit smaller than Sasuke's favorite summoning, Aoda, covering the kunoichi with Haruki's blood.

"Hinata-sama, I'm at your service." The female hissing voice reported casually as the snake wrapped it's massive body around the tree, awaiting for the orders.

Hinata jumped up, noticing that her father stopped, watching her in awe and, at once, in sincere shock, Landing onto the creature's head, she knelt down to stick to the snake's skin tighter.

"Kiruda-san! Crush the tree, now!"

"Yes, Hinata-sama!" The giant trunk cracked, breaking into pieces a second later.

Hiashi cursed, jumping down and using _Kaiten_ to protect himself from the debris, trying to keep himself focused on Hinata who suddenly became fast enough to make him truly wary, and on the snake at the same time.

It was by now obvious to him that his daughter became an apprentice of Orochimaru after she had left the village, yet never in his life he could imagine that she'd get so good in such a short time, even under guidance of a genius like the snake sannin.

The girl, on the other hand, seemed pretty confident now – seeing as Hiashi's resolve was fractured, and all the obstacles in the faces of their clansmen were gone, leaving only the two of them to fight, she was pretty sure that together with her summoning she'd able to land the deciding blow.

Jumping up from Kiruda's head and trying to get as high as it was possible, Hinata channeled as much chakra as she could into her palms once again. The snake, on the other hand, rapidly charged at Hiashi, trying to bite him with it's giant, venomous fangs.

" _Katon:_ _Jūho Sōshiken!_ " This time, despite the extreme situation, her chakra control was flawless. The two giant lions formed of incredibly potent fire element chakra and stormed towards her father along with Kiruda.

According to her calculations, it was supposed to be enough to distract him by the sudden usage of a technique somewhat foreign to him – he himself told her that nobody ever managed to add the elemental chakra to this jutsu that was quite complicated as it was.

And it turned to be correct – jumping up to dodge Kiruda's attack, Hiashi was forced to use _Kaiten_ midair, and, being bathed in Hinata's searing chakra, he couldn't see the incoming attack – everything around him was too bright to use Byakugan without the risk of being blinded, so he had to turn it off for a while.  
Realizing that, considering the tremendous amount of chakra Hinata had put into her jutsu, as well as it's explosive nature – unlike any other Katon technique, he couldn't just shake it off, since the lions would explode should they lose their form – it would take him too much time to swirl until the flames would be completely dispersed, so she knew that he needed to use a pretty tricky move to get rid of the fire, taking control over her wild, unstable chakra with his own power and throwing it away. But regardless of the outcome of this move, he needed to stop the rotation to try it, and, considering that he had to dodge Kiruda's charges at the same time, by doing so, he created a perfect opening for his daughter.

The only thing Hinata didn't consider when she was planning this sequence was Uchiha Sasuke who suddenly crossed the border of her Byakugan's field of vision, approximately a mile away from them, diverting her attention for a split second.

And this distraction failed everything.

Well, almost.

Instead of landing the fatal strike onto Hiashi's chest when he stopped the _Kaiten,_ she was only able to touch his shoulder with her four fingers which were slightly shining with her lightning element chakra – he couldn't notice it without his dōjutsu activated, so she wasn't really risking anything.

Hiashi screamed, losing the control he was trying to maintain over the mass of Hinata's chakra, and just a second after her attack reached him, the mass exploded, throwing both of them in the opposite directions like some weightless dolls.

Hinata felt how her ribs cracked as her back hit the large oak, and then, falling down, she moaned of the terrible pain in her right forearm as well.

Her eyes couldn't see or hear anything since the flash of the explosion blinded and deafened both of them, but somehow she felt that Hiashi's condition wasn't any better.

That was a wrong assumption.

When she tried to stand up, someone's hand grabbed her hair, forcefully raising the girl up to the air.

"That's enough, you little spawn of a whore... I should have dealt with you personally long ago, just like I did with your filthy mother..."

 _Her mother...? He... did he...?_

Still unable to see anything but the light that suddenly changed it's color from white to red as incredible hatred and rage filled her every inside, she could feel how Hiashi grabbed her left arm and broke it as well, and this was far more brutal than what happened to her other limb - the girl felt that her spoke-bone went out of the flesh, yet still, collecting the last pieces of her willpower, Hinata refused to scream, although it was probably the most painful experience in her whole life.

And then some mysterious power threw her away again, but, to her surprise, the fall wasn't painful this time – if anything, it was as if somebody carefully landed her onto the snow, making sure to not harm the girl anymore.

The last thing she heard before losing consciousness due to the immense pain was Hiashi's indignant voice as the Hyūga cried in anger:

"Uchiha?! What's the meaning of this?!"

* * *

Sasuke eyed Hinata's father with indifference, the only thing readable in his eyes being barely notable scepsis.

"I could to ask you the same thing." He snapped in a perfectly calm manner, stopping a few yards away from the harmed shinobi.

"As your senior, I demand your report right away! What are you doing here?! How could you dare to attack me, a council member?!" Hiashi yelled, clenching the fist of his only working, right hand – his left one wasn't moving, as if he completely lost control over it. But Sasuke could see that the chakra flow in the damaged limb completely stopped, so it was safe to assume that Hinata managed to get him with her _Raiton Jūken._

"It's yet to determine if you're truly Hiashi Hyūga or an imposer... I have a better question right now – why are you attacking a chūnin from my village, and what did you expect me to do when I saw that you were going to finish her off, especially when the girl is already incapacitated?" He asked, slightly cocking his head to the left as if he was mocking the Hyūga clan's leader, yet still he did it with clearly visible, honest suspicion in his eyes. "I'd rather be careful on choosing the words right now if I was you, because if you know who I am, which I already doubt by now, you also know that I can kill you on your spot faster than you can blink."

Hiashi cursed. The boy was right, and he knew it. Nobody in Konoha was a match for the Uchiha save for the Kyūbi's jinchūriki, and certainly not him, Hiashi, especially not in his current condition. Even if he was reluctant to admit it, his daughter nearly managed to kill him – if her strike landed just a few inches to the right, his heart would be paralyzed, and what she used on him clearly wasn't the regular jūken. Usually when his tenketsu were disabled, he could still move his arms and legs. Right now, he just didn't feel his left arm, as if it was completely missing, and it was more than weird.

In other words, he had to explain everything to the Uchiha, but... wasn't it strange that he came here, of all places? Why...?

If Hinata was taught by Orochimaru... considering that the Uchiha and his daughter had left the village on the same day, and the fact that the boy was on friendly terms with the sannin... was it possible that these two were accomplices...?

Cleaning his throat with a cough and forcing himself to calm down to avoid any further misunderstandings, Hiashi carefully uttered:

"I will explain everything to you, Uchiha-san, but first, I insist on your explanation of one thing. Why are you here? As for my identity - as far as I know, you can check my chakra signature with your Sharingan."

Sasuke eyed him up and down thoughtfully before activating his dōjutsu, slightly nodding a second later.

"Yeah, I can see that it's you indeed... but..." He glanced at Hinata who was lying on the snow, her breath being surprisingly strong for the condition she was currently in. "I can see that the girl is herself, too. I wonder why a father would try to kill his own daughter. As for your question... I've been given a top-secret mission by the Hokage, so I'm heading to the rendezvous to meet the one who I'm assigned with."

Hiashi's eyes widened.

"The mission in Amegakure...?"

"Yeah."

It made sense now. He knew that the Uchiha was telling the truth – after all, the way he was currently on indeed led to Ame, so it was perfectly legit for him to cross this place. And who else could be assigned for this job anyway...?

A mere coincidence, then...

"I'm still waiting for you to explain yourself, though." The raven haired boy pointed out, not moving his eyes from the Hyūga leader.

Hiashi sighed, closing his own eyes.

"I understand you've been away from the village for the last few months, Uchiha-san... so you probably don't know that my daughter is a missing nin now. She betrayed the village and killed her clansmen here, so it's a matter of honor for me, as the leader of her clan, to punish her for her crimes. As a fellow clan's head, I'm urging you to not interfere with the family business. You can see that my actions are perfectly legit, since what she did here is a crime against Konoha. But I've suffered quite some damage during my fight with the girl – turned out that she's not as weak as she always pretended to be..." He coughed again, wiping the blood and sweat from his face. "I request your help. We need to get her back to the village and imprison her. I admit that I let my emotions take me over when I tried to kill her... but I'm sure that you, of all people, can understand that, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke glared towards Hinata again, and his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Hiashi, noticing that, turned his head at the same direction, seeing with the corner of his white eye how the Uchiha's Rinnegan flashed, and the boy instantly teleported to the girl's body, but he was just a split second late – with a poof of white smoke, she disappeared in a reverse summoning.

"No... NO!" Hiashi screamed in rage and frustration, getting closer to the Uchiha who cursed himself. "Why did you let her escape?!"

Sasuke stared at him as if the man was a complete idiot.

"I didn't, I just wasn't fast enough. Somebody performed the _Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu_ on your daughter. And, to be fair, I didn't see you being any close to catching her in time, either."

Cursing again, Hiashi walked towards Sasuke and placed his only working arm on the teen's shoulder.

"Please, forgive my rudeness, Uchiha-san... It's just that I was sure she's not getting away this time. I think I know who summoned her. As the fellow head of another clan... can you do me a favor?"

Sasuke gave the man's arm a short glance before meeting the piercing gaze of the familiar white eyes again, not moving an inch.

"I'm listening."

Hiashi hesitated for a second, unsure if he should trust the boy or not. But then he started talking anyway:

"First of all, I want to let you know that, unlike the other people in the council of Konoha, I never considered you a traitor, nor a criminal. You did what any man would do in your place – you needed to avenge your clan, and, believe me, I understand such intention better than anyone else. If anything, I believe you are a man of great honor and power. And you have my huge respect."

Sasuke's face remained impassive – apparently he didn't really care what Hiashi thought of him, and such independence made the man respect the Uchiha even more.

"On top of that, I knew your father personally... and even though we always were rivals, I respected him a lot, too. I can assure you that he'd be proud of you if he was alive. You did the right things, and the fact that you've returned to the village once you avenged your family confirms your good intentions. That's why I'm going to ask you..." He looked away, peering at the darkness in the direction of the town. "This girl, my daughter... she murdered my dear family members without any reason. We only intended to talk, to understand why she'd left the village, nothing else. And to ask her to come back. And this... what she did is heartbreaking to me, as her father... I can't forgive her. But I can't follow her right now, either – truth to be told, I don't think I have enough energy remaining for anything else but returning to Konoha right now. So I ask you to do me a personal favor..." He met the Uchiha's passionless eyes again, this time clenching Sasuke's shoulder with nearly palpable, strong emotions in his excited voice. "Please, take care of this problem. I'm pretty sure that she's now under the aegis of your former master, Orochimaru. You know where he currently resides, don't you? When you find her... please, bring her back to Konoha, dead or alive."

The Uchiha's reaction was surprising to Hiashi to say the least. The black haired teen put his own hand onto the older man's shoulder, smirking assuringly.

"Of course, Hyūga. As the head of the Uchiha clan, I promise you to take care of her. And, since I believe it would please you more than the other way around, I'll bring her to you alive. I can't promise that it will be anytime soon, though. Remember that I still have the mission of utmost importance. But I'll do it either before or after it's completion when I have a chance – if she's truly with Orochimaru now, it's merely a matter of time, and you'll see your daughter once I'm done with the job the Sixth gave me. You have nothing to worry about. Also... can we consider it another mission? The one to, let's say, improve the relationship between our clans... I might want some help from your family in future." He said pointedly.

Now that was the talk of two mature men who knew what they wanted. Hiashi smiled, finally convinced in Sasuke's adequacy.

"Of course. So I take it I can count on you... Uchiha-san?"

He smirked.

"Yeah, you can. But since I've been given this mission, I want to ask something from you in return."

Hiashi frowned. Apparently the boy was even smarter than he originally seemed to be. But he couldn't expect anything less from the Uchiha genius.

"What would it be?"

"As you well know, not many people in Konoha share your opinion about my decisions in the past. I want to reestablish my reputation, both as the head of the Uchiha clan... and as the future Hokage. That's why I took this mission in Ame... and that's also why I accepted the one you've just given me."

The future Hokage...? That was quite some ambition on the boy's part. The Hyūga clan's head still couldn't follow Sasuke's trail of thoughts, but he preferred to not say anything just yet, although the boy's perseverance impressed the man once again.

"I want to ensure that I accomplish both these missions. This way, my reputation will rise significantly, and I will be able to prove my allegiance to Konoha for good. I can guarantee you that I will succeed... and that's why I want you to not announce what happened here in public. Don't assign anyone from your clan to hunt your daughter down – I will do it myself. Your people are needed to protect the village – as far as the Sixth informed me, we're having a hard time holding our lines nowadays."

The boy's words were pretty reasonable. Hiashi's original plan was to assign as many of his clansmen to look for Hinata as possible... but now, there was no need for that. He had the perfect tool in his hands, the one he couldn't dream of receiving before that night. After all, his other pawns' deaths were not in vain – thanks to what happened there, he now had the far more powerful figure, and an ally for the future at the same time. And, after all, considering how easily Hinata killed his men there, it would be pointless to send anyone after her now anyway – he doubted that many ninja from his clan would be able to match his daughter at that point, and he certainly didn't want to risk their lives if there was a different choice.

"I agree, Uchiha-san. I'm glad that we've come to an understanding. I will return to the village now – I'm not going to hold you from your duty any longer. I also thank you for the cooperation and wish you best luck on your mission... both of them." Hiashi bowed in respect, and, turning around, he rushed into the forest on his way back towards Konoha.

Waiting a few minutes before Hiashi left and making sure that the man was gone, Sasuke sighed, kneeling down to Hinata who slowly opened her eyes when he touched her cheek with the back of his hand.

"Sa... Sasuke... what happened? Where is he?!" She tried to get up, wincing at the burst of pain.

The Uchiha shushed her, unbuttoning his student's coat to check how strongly she was wounded.

"I've put him under a minor genjutsu... he won't bother us anytime soon. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." She suddenly scolded, making him smirk – it was unusual to hear such things from Hinata, even though she's changed quite a lot since the day they've met.

"No wonder... you look like shit, too."

She lightly punched him in the chest, giving her master a weak grin.

"That's not how you treat a woman, you douche...!"

He suddenly frowned, gripping her weakened arm with his fingers and watching it closely for a few seconds.

"Sasuke... what are you doing?" She quietly asked, frowning as well.

"That's weird..." He mumbled, turning her limb to watch it from different sides.

"You are being weird indeed." The girl carefully uttered, still not getting what he was doing, but feeling the slight blush covering her cheeks both because of being in close contact with him, and because she was simply glad to see him again after the long wait. For some reason, even the recent fight against her father, as well as the things Hiashi said implying that he did something to her mother, didn't seem as important to her as Sasuke's presence right now.

"No, that's not it... your arm... I'm sure it was broken when I showed up, and it looked pretty bad."

Hinata flinched, gasping and taking her hand out of his grasp and stretching it, squeezing her fingers a few times.

"You're right..." She muttered, looking at her arm with disbelief and shock. "I remember now... I couldn't even move it. And..." the Hyūga girl quickly raised her other hand, gasping in awe once again. "I had an open fracture on this one! And it's healed now?! How is this even possible?! I'm not a medic nin!" the girl cried, totally confused by what was happening to her.

Sasuke frowned deeper, eying her up and down.

"Do you have some chakra left? Check your insides with your Byakugan. How damaged are you right now?" The Uchiha asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

Hinata did as he told her, gasping again a second later.

"I'm... almost intact! But... I'm also nearly out of chakra, and I'm sure that I had more of it by the end of the fight. What's going on with me, Sasuke?" She gave him a troubled look as he pulled her hand to get the girl up, throwing her still numb arm over his neck to help his student walk.

"I'm not sure, but I think this has something to do with the DNA sample Orochimaru used to cure you back there... he mentioned that your existing abilities would get improved, and you might as well receive some new ones as well... I know who that sample originally belonged to, and considering it's nature, I think I might know what's happening with your body now. If I'm correct, then a new kekkei genkai is being developed in your cells... in other words, you're slowly mutating." He finished, carefully walking Hinata back to Tanzaku-gai.

"Mutating...? I don't think I like how it sounds..." She mumbled quietly, lowering her eyes reflectively.

He smirked assuringly, lightly tapping her shoulder that he was holding.

"Don't worry. It can't be worse than having a cursed seal on you." He glared at the black pattern on the girl's neck. "If anything, you will get much stronger once the process is completed, if my assumption is correct."

She gave him a weak, doubtful smile.

"I hope you're right. But, anyway... what took you so long to come back?"

For a moment the Hyūga could swear that she noticed a glimpse of embarrassment in his eyes.

"It's none of your concern. I had some private business."

Private business...? Did he visit someone? Was that a girl...?

She fought the urge to slap herself. _What the hell are you thinking, Hinata?! You're such a moron..._

"I see." She replied after a few seconds of silence, not saying anything else.

They walked quietly for a few minutes before he finally sighed, seeing as the girl clearly was feeling uncomfortable with his reply.

"I bought something. You'll see it when we're back to the hotel." He reluctantly added, frowning a little bit.

Hinata raised her head again, looking at him with slight confusion, but still not saying anything to not make the situation any worse.  
Since when Sasuke was the one to go for a shopping...? And this had to be really important for him if he decided to waste so much time on it...

"Alright... but I also wanted to ask you... how did it go? The speech with the Sixth, that is..." She carefully asked, not wanting to provoke her master, seeing as he already looked a bit conflicted and irritated.

The girl felt as he shrugged:

"It was good, I guess. Actually, I crossed your father there... couldn't assume that he would go here afterwards, of all places. But you held your ground really well. I'm proud of you. As for the speech with Kakashi... long story short, he gave the two of us an S-rank mission. We must go to Amegakure and establish the control over the village... no matter what it takes. It's crucial both to our shaky position in the village, and to the village itself. It will also help you settle things with your clan... not to mention that Ame was our original goal to begin with anyway. I'll tell you the details later - we can be overheard here, and it's top-secret." He pointed out as they crossed the entrance of the town, passing the peacefully sleeping guardian in his small hut near the gates.

Aside from the man, there were nobody else around, so she assumed that he simply wasn't in the mood to discuss the topic.

Hinata sighed, lowering her eyes again. The snowstorm nearly stopped by that point, so she just watched as the small snowflakes lazily danced, falling to the ground.

"You shouldn't really be proud of me... I got distracted, and nearly died in action. I also couldn't bring father down..."

Sasuke suddenly stopped, looking her in the eyes.

"Listen to yourself. You're babbling like a wimp again. Did the meeting with your daddy raise the old feelings of self-pity?" His eyes were merciless again, and his voice became more harsh than she ever heard.

She pushed him away and clenched her fists, instantly becoming infuriated by his words.

"It didn't! I'm not a wimp!" She blurted out, looking in his eyes with refreshed resolve.

"Really? Doesn't seem like that to me. Perhaps I should've killed him instead of you, seeing as you're a crybaby again now?" He taunted, and she punched him in the guts.

"I'm not! Shut up!" Hinata growled, raising her arm to hit him again.

The Uchiha caught her wrist midair, pulling the girl towards himself so that their noses nearly touched.

"Now that's why I let him go. I decided to leave him for you. Don't make me regret this decision." He snapped, looking her in the eyes that were now filled with both anger and... something else he couldn't recognize. Was it... did she just blush?

Forcefully pulling her hand out of his grip, Hinata turned away, walking ahead of him towards the hotel on her own now without looking at her master.

The Uchiha grinned.

"I'm affecting you in a good way."

"No, you don't."

"But I do. See, you're walking on your own now."

She didn't reply, and Sasuke didn't really mind it, enjoying her reaction. It was rather easy to provoke her, yet still he always liked the girl's rare outbursts. They excited him far more than her usual submissive behavior.

The rest of their way went silent before they finally reached and entered the hotel they stayed in for the last few days. The barman named Tōji was still there, appearing pretty bored at the moment – it was the middle of his night shift, but because of the weather, there were nearly no customers that night, so he was just sitting there, reading some book and spinning the drinking straw in his fingers.

As the doorbell dinged, he nearly jumped, taken by surprise by the clearly unexpected visitors, and looked up at the pair that interfered his solitude, taking him out of his reading.

"Oh... Sasuke-sama, Hina-sama! I didn't think you'd be back so soon! Can I help you?" He offered, cheerful and welcoming as usual, tactfully ignoring the gore Hinata was covered with.

After the speech he had with the Uchiha a day before, when Sasuke couldn't sleep and decided to have a drink in the half empty bar, he was aware of the fact that the two of them were shinobi of the high rank, and Tōji wasn't an idiot, so he decided to simply ignore anything that seemed unusual about them, pretending that these two were simple civilians.

It was better this way for each of them.

"Yeah..." Sasuke suddenly replied before Hinata managed to say that they didn't need anything. "I'll make an order in a few minutes. We just need to get up to our room and change, so stand by."

"Roger that!" The man waved them with his book, sitting back to his chair.

Hinata eyed the Uchiha in confusion. Why did he suddenly want to eat in the middle of the night? It was pretty unusual for him, of that she was sure.

But, deciding to not ask any questions, she walked upstairs, entering their room and taking her warm coat off.

"What's this all about?" She finally asked when the Uchiha undressed, only his gray, short sleeved shirt with his clan's crest on it's back, as well as his dark pants remaining on the man.

"We're going to celebrate." He snapped, not turning to face her, untying the bandage on his wrist with his teeth.

Her eyebrows raised in surprise and further confusion.

"Celebrate...? What? My shameful performance?" She asked ironically, totally not understanding what was on his mind.

"No. Your birthday."

She looked at the Uchiha as if he suddenly turned to be an alien, her mouth slightly open at the lack of words.

How did he know that it was her birthday? Truth to be told, she forgot about it herself... and he remembered? Why? How...? Why did he know it to begin with? Did it matter to him...? Why?

It was so totally unbelievable that for a moment the Hyūga thought that she's being under a genjutsu, imprisoned somewhere in Konoha, so she pinched herself, wincing in the slight pain.

No. It truly was happening. Uchiha Sasuke was going to celebrate her birthday with her... yet still it was absolutely surreal and totally unexpected. Never in her life she could imagine that such trivial things as birthdays would matter to him, especially since he didn't care about the celebration after the war at all.

Gods, she didn't even know _his_ birth date... what a shame...

He suddenly snapped his fingers, triggering the small seal on his wrist and thus making a humble, yet still not quite small box appear in his hand.

"Here..." He turned to Hinata, for some reason avoiding her eyes. "I came back late because I couldn't decide what kind of present I should give you. It's not that I usually congratulate anyone... but I thought that, considering everything about your situation, you might need a some relief." He obviously was implying that she now didn't have anyone aside from him, basically making the Uchiha the only person she could spend time with that day. "So I decided to make this small celebration for you. As for the present... here, take it." He handed her the box, which Hinata took with her hands slightly trembling, slowly opening it and holding her breath within temptation to see what was inside of it.

"Since you've left the village so quickly, I thought you might want some of the stuff you women usually use, since you didn't take anything with you... and forcing you to be so ascetic any longer is pretty much pointless, for I think you've already proven that you're now disciplined enough to afford using this stuff. You don't have to be a nobody anymore – now, you can be yourself. That's my present to you."

The girl was speechless, seeing the insides of the box. There were lots of different cosmetic stuff, as well as a few vials of perfume... and the small, silver earrings.

She literally couldn't utter a word, because the hurricane of emotions was overwhelming her now, and Hinata wasn't sure if she should show them to him or not.

It wasn't the gift itself that made her feel so... complicated.

It was the fact that... she didn't know how to tell Sasuke that she wasn't even familiar with all this stuff he gave her.

Seeing as he clearly felt a bit awkward giving her such a present, and knowing the Uchiha well enough to be able to say that he wasn't too familiar nor interested in the things girl used to make themselves look better, Hinata was afraid to show him that she was probably even more embarrassed than he was right now.

Never in her life she was any interested in looking like a woman... in appearing pretty or beautiful. Of course, she knew how to use cosmetics, since her elder relatives taught her that a few years ago, but... until that fateful day when she met Sasuke, deep inside, she still considered herself a child – too immature for using such things.  
And once they've started their journey, she finally got rid that feeling, forcing herself to believe that now she was nothing but a tool. A machine, someone whose sole purpose was serving and killing.

To someone like that, womanly things were insignificant.

On top of that, she was naturally pretty cute... well, at least certainly not ugly, considering the attention different men gave her, so she never even cared about making herself look any better, always more than satisfied with what she had.

But this...

What did he actually mean by giving her such a present?

Sasuke obviously thought that before she joined him, she was just a regular teen girl, even though a very shy one – he assumed that she simply forgot to take all the girlish stuff with her, that he somehow made her feel uncomfortable by not allowing her to buy anything aside from some clothes and stuff of first necessity and hygiene, as well as shinobi tools and weapons.

But what concerned her above everything else...

If he bought these things for her...

Did it mean that he wanted her to look beautiful?

Did he see her as a woman, not as just a tool in his disposal...?

Finally raising her head to meet his patient, yet slightly uncomfortable gaze, she gave him a barely notable nod.

"Thank you..." She babbled, unable to utter anything else at the moment.

He smirked, apparently satisfied with her reaction.

"Now, wash yourself and get dressed – might as well use the stuff I brought. Once you're done, come downstairs, I'll order us something to eat and drink." He turned away, walking out of the room and shutting the door, leaving the embarrassed girl alone in the compartment.

Standing there stunned by his actions for a few more seconds, Hinata carefully took the multiple vials out of the box, as well as the earrings. They were pretty simple – the medium sized rings made of silver, but... the problem was that her ears weren't even pierced to begin with.

Taking a senbon out of her pouch, Hinata grabbed a few vials, flasks and small boxes with her to the bathroom.

Washing away the gore and sweat after the fight against her father, Hinata looked at her reflection in the mirror critically, pushing back a few strands of her black hair that was now an inch over her shoulders, grown up a bit since it's been cut off by Tsunami in Nami no Kuni. She picked the senbon and came closer to the mirror, aiming the needlepoint at the certain spot on her right earlobe.

It didn't hurt much – comparing with the things she went through that night, it was a joke, but she still gasped in surprise, though for an unexpected reason..

Apparently her miraculous healing back in the forest wasn't just a one-time thing – the blood stopped nearly instantly, and the fresh wound healed itself within only what seemed like ten seconds. At the same time, the Hyūga girl felt as her chakra was being drained – considering how low was the amount she had left after the fight, she could feel it clearly.

Shocked by what was happening to her, Hinata pierced the earlobe again, this time putting the earring into it the instant she did so – and, to her further surprise, she felt that the wound was being healed, but the the small piercing remained there.

Did it mean that her body could now adapt to the changes of it's shape, healing only the parts that really required it and following her will, even though it was only subconscious yet?

Sighing deeply, the Hyūga took the second earring and repeated the action, once again confirming her assumption.

But then she decided that they would have plenty of time to think about it later.

Right now, she had to decide which of the things Sasuke presented to her she should use, and he obviously wanted her to use them – even if he didn't, it wouldn't be polite to just hide his present somewhere and forget about it, would it?

Stepping out of the shower cabin, Hinata covered herself with a towel and, quickly drying her hair with a slight burst of Katon chakra and brushing at the same time, she smiled at how well it looked along with her nice new earrings.

She certainly looked more mature now. More... womanly.

And she still had to use the other things he gave her...

Looking at what she brought to the bathroom, the girl decided that she shouldn't overuse it all at once, starting with small steps and taking a nice, dark cherry-colored lipstick along with simple mascara, as well as the vial with floral bouquet perfume.

A few minutes later, satisfied with her looks, Hinata smiled to her reflection, and, walking out of the bathroom, she suddenly realized that she barely had any clothes to match her makeup now, and by saying so she didn't mean something of the matching color - she literally didn't have anything suitable for a celebration.

Sighing, she decided to wear her usual white shirt that looked similar to the one that Sasuke was wearing right now except for being designed for females and having long sleeves, as well as a new pair of long, black pants, along with her usual sandals. Yet still, in order to make her clothes look a bit different from the way she usually wore them, the girl decided to not button the two upper clips of the shirt, slightly blushing at the sudden courageous idea.

Taking a final look at the mirror, Hinata sighed deeply again, trying to suppress the nervousness and to assure herself, and then she went out of the room, closing the door.

Slowly walking downstairs, the Hyūga frowned a bit, not seeing Sasuke anywhere. She couldn't see Tōji there as well, so she went through the hall to the door which, she assumed, led to the kitchen, but, before she came close enough, it opened, and the barman showed up, holding the big plate with a beautiful, fruity cake with a few candles on it.

"Oh, Hina-sama... wow!" He gasped, nearly tripping as he noticed her, trying to not accidentally drop the plate. The man stopped, eying her up and down and whistling. "You look totally gorgeous tonight!"

The Hyūga smiled shyly, nervously brushing a strand of her hair.

"You're saying it as if I usually look bad." She said, trying to joke in order to hide her embarrassment.

"Wha...? No! No-no-no, that's not it! I'm just saying that tonight you look especially great, that's all!" He quickly blurted – apparently the man wasn't too proficient in making compliments to the opposite gender, seeing as he was so afraid that he might have done something wrong.

Hinata smiled wider.

"I know. It's just a joke. By the way, do you know where Sasuke is?"

Tōji visibly relaxed, sighing in relief.

"Oh, yeah... he's waiting for the cake... I mean for you, of course... there, in the private room. By the way, Happy Birthday, Hina-sama!" He smiled cheerfully, showing her the cake. "I understand it's for you?"

She looked at the plate, slightly shrugging. Did Sasuke really order it...? This looked quite childishly.  
But then she felt the warm wave of strange compassion. The Uchiha's most treasured memories had to be from his childhood, when he still had a family, and probably received a similar cake on his own birthday many years ago... so he tried to make her feel the same way now, as much as he could.

It was truly touching, especially coming from him... she never expected him to do something like this for her.

"I guess it is..."

"Congratulations, then! How old are you now?" Tōji asked, taking the girl out of her thoughts and smiling light-heartedly again, although still unable to cover his blankness.

She barely managed to keep the laugh, covering her mouth with her palm.

"I believe you already know that, seeing as there are seventeen candles."

The man blushed terribly, looking now as if he would most certainly use a space-time ninjutsu to disappear right away if he could.

"Oh... right... sorry... anyway, I have to deliver this to your table!" He laughed awkwardly again, walking towards one of the small private rooms.

The girl shook her head, following the resilient blond barman. He definitely reminded her of someone from her past life... but now she realized that, despite finding men like him, careless and stupid, being pretty cute and nice to be around, she didn't feel anything else. They were entertaining, and they could cheer her up sometimes, but... that was it.

Such type of men totally wasn't hers, of that Hinata was now absolutely sure.

Entering the room where Sasuke was sitting at the table that was covered with different dishes and the two bottles of sake, one of them already open, she coughed, drawing the Uchiha's attention from the menu he was reading, and sitting down on the side of the table opposite to him.

"Here you go, Sasuke-sama!" Tōji put the plate with the cake onto the table, trying to fit it in between the other plates and bowls. "Should I light it up?"

"I'll manage." The black haired man snapped his fingers, and a small flare appeared on the tip of his index one.

Watching him in slight awe, Tōji bowed down, stepping away from the two of them.

"If you'll be needing anything else, just call! Have a nice celebration! And congratulations again, Hina-sama!" He quickly fled out of the room, still terribly blushing.

Watching the scene with a light sign of curiosity, Sasuke slightly raised one of his eyebrows in surprise and confusion.

"Did something happen between the two of you?" He asked, and for some reason it sounded so... strange, coming from him...

Hinata herself blushed a bit, quickly shaking her head.

"No. Nothing at all. But I think... I think he likes me."

The Uchiha lowered his eyes to the cake, lighting up the candles, before casually replying:

"Well, no wonder."

She could feel her face burning at his sudden response. She was waiting for him to say something about her new appearance, and for a moment she was afraid that he didn't even notice the changes at all... but this... such laconic, simple reply from anyone else probably wouldn't mean anything at all, but coming from Sasuke... she couldn't possibly hope for a better compliment from him.

And it all felt so unreal... so unfitting to the life she was used to...

They were silent for a few seconds while he filled their wineglass, handing one of them to her.

"You should blow them out, you know. The wish thing and everything." He pointed at the cake with a light nod.

"O... oh..." She took a deep breath, looking at the small dancing flames, but hesitating to do anything.

"Something wrong?" The Uchiha suddenly asked, gazing at her with barely notable confusion and the slightest sign of irritation.

She quickly looked up at him, shaking her head.

"No-no! It's perfectly fine... I... to be honest, I don't recall ever feeling any better than now..."

"Then what is it?" Now he clearly looked both worried and annoyed, rapidly losing his patience, which meant that he was feeling pretty nervous himself.  
That was so much like him, Uchiha Sasuke... being careful and paying attention to the smallest things and details that could seem insignificant to anyone else, and hating it when anything went wrong...

"It's nothing, really." She quickly replied, smiling assuringly. "It's just that I remembered something... that evening before we... before I've left the village..." She looked away, blushing again. "I wanted to give you a cake, too."

"Oh?" He sighed in surprise now, blinking, apparently not knowing how to react to this sudden confession.

"Yeah... I saw you up on the roof of the Hokage's office, and I thought... I just..." She sighed, collecting her thoughts. "You looked so lonely and aloof back then, and everyone around was having fun... I wanted to see you being happy, too, at least a little bit." She finally finished, not daring to look in his eyes, too embarrassed to continue.

A few seconds passed before she heard him quietly asking:

"Were you happy back then?"

She froze at the unexpected question, slowly shaking her head again after a short thinking:

"No. I wasn't."

Hinata didn't need to look at him to know that he was smirking now.

"That makes the two of us then, doesn't it?"

She smiled, finally looking up, directly at his face.

"Yes. It does."

They clinked, and she felt the hot, burning, yet somewhat pleasant liquid flowing down her throat, warming her insides.

"Listen, Hinata... starting tomorrow, we're going on the mission that might change everything. I don't know what's going to happen... it certainly won't be an easy walk in a park to either of us. It's possible that for you it will be even harder than the entire war... but..." He filled their wineglasses again, handing one of them to the girl that now looked collected and a bit worried, yet she was still looking at the Uchiha with the eyes full of resolve. "This will come tomorrow. Tonight, I want us to simply relax together. Let's put our ninja natures aside and become regular humans, just for this one night..." She could see that he really wanted, needed, even craved it. It was clearly visible in the man's eyes. And then Hinata suddenly realized once again that he was so tired... of everything. It was well written in his beautiful features which usually were mysterious and dangerous to everyone else... everyone but her. She could read him now... how come nobody noticed it before? Under the shell of the man who used to want a revolution, the one who wanted to destroy their world and build it anew... how tired this man truly was, under all his masks, despite all his incredible power and unbreakable will...? He always cared about different things and people above anything else: his desire to avenge his family, the honor of his clan, those people he cared about, even though he rarely admitted it... and the whole world... he was never thinking about himself - only about the others.

And after everything he did for her... after all they walked through together, and everything she herself suffered... how could she possibly disagree with him, the one who created a fairy tale for her in the middle of the hell that their lives were?

Giving him a happy smile, the girl nodded, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw him smile in response at once – it wasn't one of his usual grins or a smirks, but a real, sincere smile.

"Happy Birthday, Hinata."

"Thank you... Sasuke." They clinked again, and, drinking the full glass at one time, she bowed her head down and blew up the candles, not a single one remaining burning.

The Hyūga now knew what she wanted.

And she made her wish.


	12. Ambivalence

**Chapter 12. Ambivalence**

"I swear, I'm going to kill this moron one day..." The pink haired kunoichi growled and slapped her face as she observed her blond teammate practice his so-called 'new move'. Even the fact that it actually was the Hokage's order for him to learn it didn't make the impact that his performance was making any better for her.

"Uh..." She heard the sudden gasp of confusion to the left and turned her head to look at the newcomer – truth to be told, she was ready to watch freaking stones for hours instead of Naruto's training if she had anything to say about it. "Since when you're able to use Shadow Clones, eh?" Ino mumbled, sitting next to her past rival.

"Not funny at all, Ino-pig." Sakura growled again, closing her eyes in irritation.

The blonde smiled, narrowing her eyes teasingly.

"Isn't it? As far as I can see, that clone of yours is enjoying what Naruto's doing quite a lot."

"Really? Then you must be pleased to know that there is your copy, too!" Haruno barked, clearly not willing to be embarrassed alone anymore.

But Ino always was different. Instead of blushing as Sakura expected her to, the blonde whistled, gazing in the direction of Konoha's jinchūriki who was now too occupied to pay them attention.

"Oh... so our Naruto-chan has some taste for real women, after all." Dodging Sakura's punch, she laughed, turning back to the Uzumaki. "Why are you so mad about it, though? I think he's doing great. I tried to enter one of the clone's mind, and it took me seven seconds to recognize that it's fake. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me."

"It only means that you're so stupid that even someone like Naruto can fool you, dumbass."

Ino simply shrugged, not taking the insult serious.

"Whatever... but seriously, shouldn't you be proud of him? I thought you two were getting..."

"No, we weren't. And let's drop this subject. I don't wanna talk about it." Sakura snapped, turning away and looking at the horizon.

The Yamanaka girl was right, of course – Naruto was doing great. Kakashi-sensei warned them that this training might damage his psychic, or even lead his personality to split, but according to Ino's daily checks, there was no sign of any harm to his mind, while his progress was just splendid – there was no denying this fact.

Actually, the problem wasn't related to his training at all. She just couldn't stand seeing him chatting with herself... so freely. So joyfully. So... different from what their conversations were recently.

His task could seem to be simple at the first approach, but, in reality, she doubted that even Ino, or someone else from her clan who were very skilled in mind games could make it work.

First, the Uzumaki had to create a dozen of Shadow Clones – that, of course, was child's play for him.

Then he had to transform them into different people – both the ones he knew personally, and the ones his imagination could create. Not that hard for someone as skilled at using _Henge no Jutsu_ as him, either.

The real deal started after that point. Naruto, or Naruto's clone, to be precise, had to learn to clear it's mind, and then to start acting as a completely different person – the one he was being transformed into. Of course, it was slightly easier to act as if he was somebody he already knew – the only problem there would be the differences of his perception of the certain person from what they were in reality. After all, nobody could do it flawlessly, since it was impossible to copy someone's soul. He could only simulate their behavior and possibly emotions, thanks to his tailed beast.  
In other words, they intended to make a move somewhat similar to what the Zetsu army did during the war – an extremely strong and destructive way of creating diversions.

Despite all the hardships on the way of mastering it, Naruto was doing great. For instance, the clone that looked like Ino and was currently talking to the clone that looked like Shikamaru, was hardly distinguishable from the real Ino who was now sitting next to her.

Sakura lowered her gaze to the ground, hugging her knees.

This newly discovered talent of his wasn't as surprising to her as it was to everyone else.

 _"So I basically need to make a clone that would pretend to be you, Sakura-chan?" He asked for the third time as they walked towards their small camp near the broad river on the border between their country and the Land of Rain._

"Yes, either a clone, or you can try doing it yourself. I know, it's extremely hard, but it's the only way to make Kakashi-sensei's plan work, so..."

He suddenly laughed, locking his hands on his nape.

"Na-a-ah, doesn't sound hard at all! And I already did something like that once before, so..."

She blinked in surprise, looking at the blond jinch _ūriki with confusion._

"Did you?" The girl asked doubtfully. Was he trying to impress her with a childish lie again...? He did no such thing for quite some time by now...

"Yeah! You even saw it yourself, although you don't know you did!" He now seemed so proud of himself that she couldn't help but give out a small smile. Her teammate was so cute and adorable now...

"Really? And when was that? Enlighten me."

He smirked, scratching his nape.

"Well, I think it was right after we graduated from the academy... remember when Sasuke nearly kissed you?"

She stopped, feeling her heart skipping a beat.

"How do you know about it?"

He stopped, turning around to look at her and laughing carelessly, as if it wasn't a big deal at all.

"Because that was me! I turned into Sasuke and approached you, because you wouldn't even talk to me back then if I did it normally! I really liked you, so..."

But she didn't hear the ending of his sentence, too shocked by the fateful revelation.

All these years... that memory was the only thing that gave her hope. That supported her delusions about Sasuke having some feelings for her. He really did want to kiss her back then... but then he ran away, embarrassed by something. He even complimented her forehead there... and because of that, she always thought that he simply closed up because of the trauma his brother caused to him. That he actually liked her, but was too proud, or too embarrassed to admit it...

He was her dark knight who was supposed to come after her one day. To take her with him. To let her heal his wounds, to cure his soul...

And all these fantasies, all these dreams she treasured for so long...

All of it was fake. Mere delusions.

She wasted years of her life in blind hope for someone who never cared for her, for someone who, in fact, really despised her – of that Sakura had no doubt by now, since after hearing what Naruto told her, she had no reason to believe that Sasuke was lying to her, hiding his true feelings, anymore.

Come to think about it, she couldn't remember the Uchiha ever lying to anybody – actually, when he called you trash, that always meant that he actually thought you're trash.

Which meant that he truly considered her nothing but an irritating annoyance, through all these years... he actually meant it.

This sole thought made her desperately try to hide her tears from Ino now, though it wasn't hard at all – her friend was too absorbed by watching Naruto's training.

All these years... were for nothing. Her life was no better than that in the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

And all this... was thanks to Naruto, who was now perfecting the move that broke her life.

That's why she couldn't look at him doing it now again and again with such ease, as if it was nothing.

Especially when his clone that was turned into her was chatting to him normally, just like she would do before he told her what he did...

Sakura wasn't sure how she felt about him now. And that went for Sasuke, too.

Before that day when she found out the truth, she still hoped for a happy life with the Uchiha... some day in the future... and, on the other hand, she felt her heart being torn apart, because she was growing more and more attached to her blond teammate who always was there for her when Sasuke wasn't. And this duality was slowly driving her insane.

He was cute, fun, strong and smart, in his own way. He also was extremely charismatic, and even though he was only seventeen years old now, it was obvious to everyone that he was going to become the next Hokage soon enough. Just like he always dreamed to...

He always was the one to make his dreams come true, to achieve his goals no matter what.

She never could be as strong as he was. Soft and kind on the outside, he was unbreakable and almighty under his shell. Quite the opposite to her...

On the other hand, he still was annoying sometimes. And she wanted to hate him for what he did years ago... making her life so miserable up to now by his pure stupidity. Could she really blame him, though? He was merely a lonely child who sought friendship and some warmth from his teammates, the only people he could make bonds with back then...

Now that she knew that she never had a chance to be with Sasuke, she started to get rid of his image in her head. Of course, it was still painful to think about the Uchiha, but Sakura was slowly beginning to see him as just her teammate and... friend. Yes, after all, he said that he was sorry... and his goodbye to her was kind and gentle. Perhaps Naruto really managed to change him, and now the raven haired boy finally considered her a comrade, especially since he saw that she actually wasn't as useless as he always thought she was.

It was a relief to understand that she managed to make him respect her, but... something told her that he would never love her in the way she wanted to be loved. On top of that, he didn't need someone like her. Sakura believed that he needed someone who could soften his pain, who could grant him a calm, measured life – someone of a temper completely different from her own.

And, more importantly... did _she_ actually want to continue clinging to her false hopes? To the broken dreams that would never come true? If she managed to become his wife in future... did she want such life? To always doubt his, let alone her own feelings? Considering that she probably wouldn't be able to even talk to him any time soon, and that he could stay away from the village for years again... what if he comes back when she's twenty? Or twenty five? Was she truly ready to wait for him, for this phantom chance...? To waste even more years for something nonexistent?

Her answer was 'no'. She would always be happy to have Sasuke around, for their team to be together once again... and, of course, the doors of her home would always be open for him should he ever need her help in anything.

He still was her friend, her teammate, someone who gave her the drive to become what she'd become... possibly the strongest kunoichi alive. For that, Sakura would always remain grateful to him.

And to Naruto, too. In fact, although she didn't realize it back then, he was an equally strong reason for her to work hard to break through every obstacle on her way of becoming stronger and better, up to now...

But...

Did she love Naruto now?

Before he told her the truth about that accident with the clone years ago, Sakura believed that she was starting to fall for him. As a matter of fact, with years passing, the Uzumaki probably became even more dear to her as a teammate and friend than Sasuke. Yet still...

Could she forgive him for what he did back then?

Probably, yes. After all, that wasn't the stupidest thing Naruto ever did. And he certainly didn't mean to hurt her – in fact, he just wanted to make a friend, and to kiss the girl he liked...

She finally raised her head to look at him, still talking to multiple fake persons that he created with his signature technique. A weird show indeed...

This couldn't last any longer. They needed to settle things between them once and for all.

And to do so...

She needed to know what he thought of her.

Five long month passed since the end of the war. And if in the beginning he still tried to make her like him in the way a girl is supposed to like a guy, apparently he noticed that it didn't work, so he nearly stopped their dates... on top of that, he was so concerned about Hinata's disappearance... of course, that was to be expected from Naruto, but still... for some reason, Sakura had a feeling that it was almost as if he felt guilty for something he didn't tell her. Did something happen between him and the Hyūga? Something she had no idea about?

Of course, the medic nin couldn't say that he's become colder than usual. It was still the same Naruto, shiny and cheering as always... but for some reason, he started to keep away from her, furtherer and furtherer, and she both felt and saw it clearly by that moment.

Right now, her decision depended on his answer.

This cat-and-mouse game had to stop.

If he said her that he wanted to be with her, then she'd be with him. Simple as that. After all, he deserved it, and she... she liked him. No matter how much it hurt to find out the truth, she still liked him, both as a person and as a boy.

And if he said that he wanted it to stop, then... she would start looking for her own path, just like her other two teammates always did.

The problem was that Sakura didn't know which option she herself would prefer at the moment...

"Hey, girls! How ya doin'?" The cheerful voice of Rock Lee asked, making Sakura slip out of the depth of her thoughts and flinch, looking up at him in confusion. Lee wasn't supposed to be on this mission, was he...?

"The manners, moron. Lee never talks like this." Ino threw a boulder at the taijutsu specialist, and, with a gasp and a poof white smoke, he fell onto his butt, transforming back into wincing Naruto.

"That hurts, Ino, y'know...!" He moaned, slowly getting up from the ground and brushing the dust off his orange pants. "But you're right, yeah. I totally forgot about it when I noticed the two beauties right here. Can't blame me for that!"

The Yamanaka giggled, coquettishly covering her mouth with a palm.

"True, true... anyway, are you done for tonight?

His wide smile shined in the soft rays of the sunset.

"Yeah! At this rate, we'll be ready to start the operation even before the set date!"

Apparently he didn't notice how Sakura looked away, avoiding his eyes.

Ino was more observant, though – quickly realizing that her best friend had something on her mind concerning the Uzumaki, she nodded to Naruto, lightly tapping his shoulder.

"Great job, knucklehead. Although you still need to work on hiding your emotions." She smiled, getting up again, once again noticing how much he grew up during the past few months, being at least five inches higher than herself now.

He smiled even wider, even though it seemed to be impossible.  
"Didn't I tell you already? It was because you girls distracted me! I couldn't stand such hot chicks peering at me while I'm training! Impossible to focus!"

Ino laughed again, slightly shaking her head.

"Dumbass... anyway, I'm out for dinner. The next shift is in less than an hour, and it's our turn, so I recommend you two to tag along shortly." She turned around, leaving Naruto and Sakura alone.

The Uzumaki watched the blonde leave until she disappeared in one of the huge tents, and then he finally turned to Sakura who frowned right away, finally meeting the piercing gaze of his blue eyes.

She assumed that he was oblivious to her desire to talk to him, but apparently he realized that something was off with the girl.

"So... what's up?" He simply asked, sitting next to Sakura onto the spot where Ino rested just a minute ago.

She didn't reply for what seemed like a minute, and he didn't try to hasten her, either, carefully and patiently waiting for the girl's response. That was Naruto in the nutshell – always so caring, so kind... so serious when the situation demanded it.

"I..." The pink haired girl finally opened her mouth, but her voice sounded weird, so she cleared her throat before continuing. "Naruto... what's going on between us?"

This time he was silent for a few seconds. She was afraid to look at him, again, but knowing him as good as she did, the kunoichi could see his expression even with her eyes closed.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Sakura."

She flinched. This was probably the first time when he addressed her without the 'chan' suffix after her name.

Just like Sasuke always did.

"I..." Confused, she collected the remains of her willpower and turned her head to him, finally meeting his eyes which were now full of resolve and... sadness? "I mean... I know I've been acting weird recently, but I..."

"I know your reasons. And you have every right to do so."

So he knew...? But how? Oh...

She then remembered that there always were the two of them, not just Naruto.

Kurama, then...

"If you know it... then you must also know that I've forgiven you. For what you've done back then, that is."

"Yeah. I know it, too. I'm glad that you're over Sasuke now."

Sakura flinched again, feeling uncomfortable and confused around her blond teammate, possibly for the first time in her life. He was acting unlike his usual self... was that because of the fox? No, he claimed to have full control over his tenant. Then what on earth...

"Don't worry about Kurama. I'm talking to him from time to time, discussing different stuff, but I can block my head from his jabbering whenever I want. He's not interfering right now unless it's something urgent. This goes for the other fellows, too."

"Then how...?"

He gave her a sad smile.

"Remember, I can feel people's emotions. And I know you well enough, anyway... even though I'm not the smartest person around, I'm not an idiot. I can see it, you know. Though Kurama told me that it's not polite to show everyone that I know what their feelings truly are..." He smiled slightly, with a hint of unfamiliar grief deep in his eyes. "Anyway, I know what's going on in your heart, no need to explain it."

Sakura suddenly hugged him tightly, burying her face in his jacket, trying to hide the unexpected burst of tears.

"Then tell me, Naruto... what should I do? I'm so confused right now... I can't decide what to do with my life from now on. Please, help me..." She sniffled, and he carefully waited for her to finish the sentence. "I'm so pathetic... can't even handle my own problems anymore..."

She could feel him sigh loudly, and then he carefully squeezed her shoulders, slightly pushing the girl away from himself to meet her light green eyes which were now filled with tears and desperation.

"Sakura... I can't decide that for you. Nobody can. But if it helps... I can tell you what I'm going to do. I've been thinking, you know... especially for the last few weeks, when we nearly didn't talk at all... do you remember what I told you after the war? About my dreams and goals?"

She quickly nodded, sniffling again.

"Yes... I do. You wanted to become the next Hokage... to unite the world and to become the one who will break the endless chain of hatred." The girl nearly quoted his words, slightly smiling at the memory. Before the war, she could only laugh at his naiveness. Now... she believed in him, just like everyone in Konoha did. "You also said that since it worked with Sasuke, then the world will be easy to handle..." He smirked, and she giggled. After all, she truly loved her teammates, no matter what they did...

"Do you know what's changed since then?" She shook her head, waiting for him to continue with bated breath. "Almost nothing. But recently, I began realizing that I was a brat back then. Now I know that such goal can't be achieved by loud words of bold claims alone. Just like Obito told me back there, on the battlefield... when I declared that I'd never let my comrades die, and then he killed Neji, as well as the others... now I understand that he was right. I need... no, I _must_ be able to back my words up. Simply not going back on them is not enough anymore. There are things I can't allow to happen... mistakes which can't be corrected, thus can't be allowed to be made. Half a year ago, I've made my last one."

She gasped, still not believing that this was Naruto before her at the moment. Did his mind games with the clones affect him, after all? Or... no, he didn't seem to be insane in any way. It was quite the opposite, actually – for once, he was completely serious, dropping his usual goofy behavior.

"A mistake...? What did you do?" He didn't reply, looking away from her, hiding his eyes for the first time in a while. She gripped his shoulders, forcing the blond to look back at her. "What happened, Naruto?!"

He sighed again, and for a split second she thought that he wasn't going to tell her, but...

"It's Hinata... she's left because of me."

The kunoichi could feel her heart slow down it's beating to the point of nearly stopping. Hinata? So he lied to her about not knowing what's happened to her...? Was that why he didn't go after her right away, like he did for Sasuke? But he never tried to look for her, not even once... which meant...

"You know where she is, don't you?"

He was silent for what seemed like eternity – the time lost it's meaning for Sakura at the moment anyway.

"Yeah. I do." Naruto finally muttered, looking away again.

So he did know...? And never said anything to anyone, even to the Hokage, to Kakashi-sensei? That was hardly believable.

"And...?"

The jinchūriki brushed his hair hesitantly, and it was weird, because it was unusual for Naruto to hide something, especially from her. Why was he refusing to tell her?!

A sudden burst of anger filled her, and she pushed the boy away.

"Tell me, Naruto! Clearly you're not stupid enough to tell me about the accident that happened years ago now that, of all times, when we're starting to become something more...! You planned all this, and you knew damn well what's going to happen! Why?! Why did you do it?!" She yelled, getting up and towering over him who still refused to meet her enraged gaze.

"Because I wanted it to end." He finally said. "I wanted you to grow up, just like I did. We're not children anymore, Sakura. At least I'm certainly not. I can't afford being one. You know, back when I met dad and mom... they made me realize that I'm capable of lots and lots of things. During the war, I also realized that a lot of people put their trust in me..." He got up from the spot he was sitting at, turning to face his furious green eyed teammate. "I won't fail them. No matter what. It's true that, during our last fight, I managed to change Sasuke, but... he's changed me, too. In the end, both of us were right and wrong at the same time. And now... I want you to grow up, too. You are very important, both to the village and to me... and to Sasuke. As ninja, we must learn to endure above everything else. Our personal feelings do not matter when it comes to the matter of safety of the village... let alone the entire world, and this responsibility is on our shoulders now. Please... I want you to understand and to accept it."

She gasped, having a hard time believing that this was truly Naruto before her right there. He was... really different. And now she realized that he truly grew up, indeed. He was a man now, not the boy she considered him to be up to that moment. And somehow she managed to miss the day when he's changed so much... or perhaps she just refused to notice it?  
For a split second, she could swear that she saw the white cloak of the Fourth Hokage waving behind his back, only to realize that this was probably just her imagination. Yet still...

"Is that why you said that you're glad that I'm over Sasuke now?" She quietly asked, rapidly calming down. He was right about everything, there was nothing to argue with. And she had to accept it as the reality.

Sakura was done living in the haze of illusions.

"Yeah, basically. I thought it's a good sign. About damn time, if you ask me. Took you long enough." He smiled, and his expression was sincere as usual.

He was still the same Naruto, just... more mature. Exactly like he told her before.

"I see." She replied, brushing the tears away and taking a deep breath. "You still haven't answered my question about Hinata. If you know where she is, why didn't you tell everyone?"

He smirked, and his eyes shined with his usual ardor again.

"Knowing how smart you are, I was actually pretty sure that you've already figured it out. It's not about _where_ she is, it's about _with who_ she is. He might get in trouble if her clan finds out, so, considering that Kakashi-sensei already knows it, I thought that I should keep my mouth shut and pretend to not know anything. After all, nobody could imagine that I, of all people, would find it out, eh? At least Sasuke clearly doesn't want me to know. Probably thinks that I'd do something reckless again."

The girl's eyes widened at the sudden realization. It all clicked in her mind now, the puzzle was solved – that's why Naruto was so calm about her disappearance. That's why he didn't expect the Hyūga to come back anytime soon. He was absolutely sure that she's safe, that's why... wait.

"You also said that it's your fault that she's left. What did you do?" She didn't expect him to reply right away, but apparently the Uzumaki didn't really consider it a big deal.

"That night, during the fest after the war... remember how I went after Sasuke when I spotted him? Me and Hinata, we bumped into each other, and, well... she reminded me of our talk just prior to the war. Well, not really a talk, but... anyway, back there, she had said that she loves me."

Of course she did. It was obvious to everyone in Konoha and, and even to some people outside of the village, remembering the Kazekage and his siblings.

"And?" She asked, a little impatiently.

He shrugged.

"I told her that I like someone else. That was true. I liked you. I still do."

She gasped again, refusing to believe her ears.

"But why..."

"Because back then, even though I didn't completely realize it, I already was on the way to what I've become now. I wanted her to get over her crush. Just like I wanted you to get over yours. All this stuff, this is what remains of our childhood. It would be fine to play these games for a couple more years, but we can't afford it. Not us, not with the responsibilities that we bear."

Trying to comprehend everything he said, she sighed, staying silent for a minute or two, before finally uttering:

"But if you still like me... we... can we..."

"No." He suddenly snapped, which sounded rather harsh, making her legs start shaking and her heart skip a few beats again. "I want to be honest with you, Sakura. Over these years, I grew to have different feelings for you... I like you as my teammate, and I love you as my dear friend. But... you were my first crush, too. That's a thing from our childhood as well, and it needs to remain there, in the past. I already told you once, during the Kage Summit... I don't want us to lie both to each other and to ourselves . You don't love me. And I don't have such feelings for you, either. Let's face it... there is no such... thing between us. And the sooner we admit it, the better."

She was ready to laugh at the irony. Naruto Uzumaki was basically breaking up with her... if what they had up to now – a few dates and clumsy kisses – could be considered a real relationship. Naruto, of all people... that boy from her childhood who she considered a ridiculous annoyance... her future Hokage, and the hero of the entire world.  
And her own crush, who apparently never had any feelings for her what so ever, was now with the one who was once obsessed with Naruto the same way she was obsessed with Sasuke.

Life was truly a cruel thing...

Sakura could feel another burst of tears incoming, so the kunoichi clenched her fists as tight as she possibly could, forcing herself to suppress the urge to break in front of the jinchūriki again.

Was this how her sensei felt towards Naruto's teacher, Jiraiya? Tsunade once told her, when the female sannin was drunk, that she realized that she loved the man when it was already too late... and considering how similar their stories seemed... should she tell Naruto now that her feelings for him were already about to bloom...?

But perhaps that was just another delusion? Shouldn't he, the one who could read people's hearts and emotions, know better?

And she always trusted the Uzumaki without a question... so...

The girl swallowed hard, trying to think quick, and then she finally uttered:

"I see... you are right, Naruto. I gave you a promise once, that I'd become strong to keep up with you... and I kept my word."

He smiled - though she didn't see it, she could her it in his voice.

"Yeah. I remember that."

"Now I'll give you another promise. I will grow up, too. I will keep up, I always will. And I will help you and Sasuke achieve our goals, because you're right about everything, especially about our responsibilities."

He smiled even wider, nodding.

"I know. You're Sakura-chan, after all. Couldn't expect any less of you."

"But..." She interrupted him, still peering at his sandals. "I want to ask something."

"Anything for you!"

The kunoichi sighed, unsure how to present her request.

"If something changes in the future, a few years later, maybe... if the two of us fall in love with each other or something... I want both of us to promise to not hide it. Ever. I don't want to repeat Tsunade-sama's fate."

He smirked, hugging the girl tightly.

"Of course. Anyway, when did I hide something from you, Sakura-chan?" She gave him a deadpan look, making him let out a guilty laugh. "I mean something important..." They silently gazed at each other before he finally raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, fine! Promise, I won't hide anything from you anymore. I just didn't want you to know about Sasuke... thought it might distract you and all..."

She suddenly gripped his hand and walked towards the camp, pulling the blond along.

"Yes, yes, I know... by the way... how did you know Hinata's with Sasuke? Is the range of your sensory abilities that long...?"

He shook his head, smirking.

"Nah... not that. I told you, I'm not as stupid as you think! It's just that after what Nagato did, I decided to always leave a clone at home, back in Konoha. Should something urgent happen, the clone is supposed to dispel itself, so I that I can instantly find out what exactly happened."

She slightly raised her eyebrow, not quite getting where he was leading. "So?"

"Back in December, Sasuke came to the village and spoke with Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-no-bāchan... My clone felt a trace of Hinata's chakra on him, so I... or the clone... no matter, we decided to follow him to find out what this was about. Turned out that Kakashi-sensei knows that Hinata's traveling with him. And there also was Hinata's little sister... can't remember her name, but I think you should know her, that little shrimp... anyway... after they talked, Sasuke went somewhere, and, well, I decided to not follow him afterwards."

Sakura turned around to gaze at him in surprise and confusion.

"Why? Didn't you want to talk to him? I thought that was a rare opportunity, considering how seldom he comes back to the village..."

"Yeah, but I didn't want to embarrass him. I don't think he wanted to meet someone he knows back then."

Now that was completely weird.

"Why was that?" She asked, not understanding the Uzumaki's reasoning at all.

The blond scratched his nape, blushing a bit.

"Well, you see... I noticed him going into a store..."

Haruno finally stopped, turning around completely to face him and frowning.

"What kind of store? Come on, Naruto, you promised to not hide things from me."

Naruto looked around, lowering his voice.

"You know, where the girlish stuff is being sold... trinkets, cosmetics and everything..."

The medic nin now frowned even deeper, shaking her head.

"And here I thought you became more serious... that's an awful joke, you know?"

But Naruto suddenly laughed.

"You know, thing is that it's not a joke at all. I thought it was weird and kinda creepy, but then I checked the calendar, and it all clicked – that day was the day before Hinata's birthday.

Sakura's eyes widened in complete, utter shock. Sasuke... bought... someone... a birthday present? A present for a girl...? For... Hinata...?

But why? What kind of relationship they shared? Did they become close? And why did Sasuke agree to allow her to follow him when he refused to let her, Sakura, join him...?

She suddenly felt betrayed and jealous.

Sasuke barely knew Hinata. As far as she knew, they never even talked to each other. And he certainly wasn't interested in her back in the academy, like at all, and that was mutual.

Then why...? Why her...?

But then again... come to think about it now, the Hyūga was a prefect match for the image she had in her head just prior to her speech with Naruto, when she was thinking about an ideal girl for Sasuke. Yet still, to think that the Uchiha did something like that... for a girl? He never payed attention to any girl what so ever... but, on the other hand, Hinata was the only girl in their class who never cared about him, either. Perhaps that was the reason...? Or something else?

No, this was just the stupid jealousy clouding her mind right now, she realized. Sasuke never did anything without a good reason. If he allowed Hinata to follow him, then he either needed her for something... or she managed to convince him with a very good reason. Or perhaps both these things...?

Well, no matter. It was Sasuke's private life, she had no right to meddle into it. But still... Hinata? The shy, quiet Hinata...? That was so unbelievable...

Sakura was suddenly ripped out of her thoughts when Naruto stopped abruptly, his expression completely changing within just a few seconds as his face became pale and collected, as if he noticed a ghost in the bushes.

"What... what happened?" She asked anxiously, meeting his slightly lost gaze.

"It's Kurama... he says that it finally happened, after all. A bijū has been sealed, and they said it's impossible to say where and by who."

That was bad. They expected it to happen at some point, but so soon...

"Which bijū?" She quickly asked, slightly shaking her teammate to help him recover from the news.

He looked her in the eyes, and she could read apparent pain and grief in them.

"Kurama's other half."

* * *

It was a really rough day for Jun. Certainly not the worst one up to date, by far, but it didn't make his mood any better – his work was shit, and he knew there was no way out of his current position.

They all were prisoners, and only the very few people in the village realized that. Most of them were brainwashed ever since Akatsuki overthrew Hanzo – and even the fall of their 'god' didn't make the situation any better. They still had that blind faith in the idea of locking themselves up from the entire world, and only 'the best of the best' shinobi were allowed to go out of Amegakure, in order to complete whatever secret missions they were given by their new leader.

Personally Jun hoped that things would get better after Pain's downfall. First, the memorial in the middle of the village was just a memento for everyone... but that didn't last long. Soon enough, it turned into a sanctuary. When Pain's 'angel' got herself killed, too, and their symbols of leadership – the rings – were lost forever, the only thing they had to remind them of their fake pantheon was that stupid statue... what a bunch of idiots.

That was the nature of people – stupid, easy to be fooled, easy to be manipulated, easy to believe whatever nonsense was being spread among them.

In other words, they were weak.  
And Jun was relatively fine with that, despite the fact that being around these sheeps made him feel uneasy.

He disliked animals.

Fortunately enough, he always managed to be on top of the food chain. Years ago, he was one of the guardians of Pain's Tower. There weren't a specific name for his residence, so everyone simply called it the Tower, even now.

And these days he was the personal guardian of the current leader of Amegakure, and Jun hated this job.

Back then, all he had to do was to stand near the entrance ten hours a day and get payed for doing absolutely nothing. It was insane to assume that anybody would try to enter the facility, knowing whose residence it was.

Now, he received far lesser amount of money, and he had to do all the dirty work for the leader. Well, not quite _all_ the work, since there were five other guardians aside from himself, but still, that was too much after years of easy payments and relatively measured life – well, as measured as it was possible in a place like this damned village.

And this leader, he was just a young, idealistic fool. He, Jun, wasn't that old for a regular man, but as a shinobi of Ame, he was considered very experienced – one didn't simply live up to the age of twenty nine, being one of the best shinobi in the entire country. They usually died without living longer than twenty years at best.

So, in a way, he was an old man here. An old, respected man. A god's guardian, a sword in that idiot's hand...

He cursed, spitting onto the dirty path under his feet.

Such retards.

He entered the bar, quickly walking to his favorite spot in the corner near the bar table and sitting down there, trying to suppress the urge to explode as the silence fell upon the hall when he went in. Quickly waving everyone dismissively, he sighed.

"So, how was your day?" Asked Mutsumi, the gray haired barman with multiple wrinkles on his face. The real old man there, he received little to no respect from the others. In fact, they usually considered him nothing but a piece of furniture. A detail of the bar's interior.

Nothing else.

"You guess." He took the glass of moonshine, quickly drinking the burning, yet refreshing liquid.

The old man smiled, shaking his head.

"It's all written on your face, Jun... you should've left back when you had that chance."

Jun shrugged, clicking on the empty glass with his index finger and thus ordering another one.

"As if I don't know myself. This stupid country is rotten, and it will get worse at this rate. He is an idiot, I swear."

Now Mutsumi seemed a bit intrigued, but, filling Jun's glass up again, he continued wiping the empty plate in order to not draw any unnecessary attention.

"Something happened? I don't wanna know if it's a secret..." He quietly murmured.

Jun sighed, taking the second portion of his drink and scratching his short, black beard.

"It's a secret, but only these retards around really care. Who's going to interrogate you should you find out? Nobody, because there is nobody to do it. This village's government still hasn't collapsed only thanks to it's citizens, who are all just blind bigots, not a single one with any sign of a brain." He blurted up, taking another sip from his glass.

Mutsumi smiled with corners of his mouth, still continuing wiping the perfectly clean plate.

"I see you can't wait to share it, eh? Fine, then. Shoot it."

Jun smirked. This old man was probably the only one in the whole village who could dare to speak with him like this. Even the leader was more... respectful.  
And this was exactly what he needed from someone he could call a friend.

"They keep sending more raiders to the Fire Country... and the more troops they send, the less come back. At this rate, we can wait for Konoha to strike back really soon. And this time, they won't leave a stone unturned here. In other words, we are all doomed."

Mutsumi shook his head, hissing.

"But they do realize it, don't they?"

Jun took another sip, slightly turning his head to check if anyone's listening. But there were nobody around – the seat next to him was empty, as expected; and then there was a beautiful, dark haired woman, not older than twenty, in a humble, yet stylish red dress that matched her makeup perfectly. She seemed to enjoy the glass of very expensive wine – which meant she wasn't just a whore looking for some easy money, but someone rich, probably having a private meeting here. With a lover? Trying to hide from her husband? Or perhaps just looking for some naughty adventure to get rid of the boredom?

No matter. At least there was someone normal here aside from the two of them.

Lowering his voice, he mumbled to Mutsumi:

"Yeah, they do. Actually, they came up with a solution... or rather with another stupid idea. Kazuhiko's raid has just returned, and they brought a weapon. Something that is supposed to help us defend ourselves. I can't tell you much, because this is where some really dangerous information starts... but... anyway, if you ask me... I think that this will only taunt the great countries even more should they find out what exactly is under the leader's control now. Told you, he's an idiot." Emptying the third full glass of the doubtful spirit drink, Jun could feel that he was slowly becoming drunk.

Exactly what he needed after what they've done with that poor girl the leader called their weapon...

The old man shook his head again, letting out a deep sigh.

"Well, then you're right, and we all are doomed... nothing new here, though."

Jun smirked, cheering him with another glass and narrowing his dark gray eyes.

"Damn right. Can't help it, it's always like this in these damned lands."

He then heard a soft, pleasant female voice to his right:

"It can't be that bad. Even though life here is pretty hard indeed, we're still alive, aren't we? Surely we'll manage to survive whatever is going to happen." The dark haired woman smiled, sitting next to him and offering Jun a glass of wine, the same as the one she herself was drinking. "My treat, shinobi-san."

Jun eyed her up and down, snorting depreciatingly.

"It's easy to say when all you do is pleasing some rich guy in a village full of idiots, sweetie." He still decided to take the glass, cautiously taking a small sip.

It turned this woman had a good taste in alcohol. That, along with the cute appearance, almost made him like her.

"You're saying it as if it's a bad thing to do for a woman." She replied with a deadpan expression.

Yes, he certainly liked her.

"No. Not at all." He replied after a moment of silence, raising up his wineglass. "Cheers, lady."

"Cheers." She smiled, and it nearly looked seductive to him.

"What are you doing here of all places anyway?" He asked, not out of curiosity – because he wasn't really interested – but just to start talking to her.

He already knew what he wanted of this doll tonight.

She smiled again.

"Perhaps I'm looking for some fun... or maybe I like danger. For example, I heard some part of what you discussed with the barman-san here... and I can't help but wonder, who are you? Are you dangerous?" He could feel the light touch of her palm on his knee.

So she wanted to avoid the unnecessary complications...? What a perfect woman.

He smirked devilishly, grabbing her waist which she didn't mind at all, hugging his neck.

"I'm quite dangerous, baby... ever heard of the Tower's guardians?"

Her eyes widened in surprise and her lips slightly parted, revealing perfectly white teeth.

"So you're one of the leader's best fighters...? Woah... that certainly sounds dangerous."

"It sure is, cutie. So, wanna go and have some fun at my place?" He growled, his lips nearly touching hers.

Was it just his imagination, or there was a sign of slight fear in her eyes as she hesitated for a moment?

"Of course. Lead the way, dangerous guy..." She kissed him, and the way she did it made her seem a bit inexperienced to Jun.

But it didn't matter to the man. He was too drunk and he hasn't been with a woman for too long.

"Let's go then." He grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her towards the exit, forgetting to pay, being followed by Mutsumi's thoughtful look.

His home was pretty close to the bar – they only walked for what seemed like five minutes or so before they finally entered his apartment. Jun started to undress the girl the instance the door closed.

"Easy, easy... let's move to your bed first, if you have one, of course." She hissed teasingly, slightly pushing him away.

Jun smirked grimly.

"And here I thought you like it rough... fair enough." He kissed her thin, elegant neck, entering the bedroom and pushing the girl who gasped in surprise of his assertiveness unto his medium sized bed.

It was when he tore her dress apart or a second prior to it, Jun wasn't sure when exactly, but suddenly the feeling of strong panic embraced him. His every feeling screamed: leave right away! Run as fast as you can!"

Yet still he decided to ignore it, thinking that it was probably some bad alcohol Mutsumi gave him, or the fact that he mixed it up with wine...

This was a big mistake on his part.

A second later, he felt something penetrating his guts, nearly making the man scream of terrible pain, but the girl didn't let him, quickly reacting and covering his mouth with her own.

What...? Why? How the hell this could happen?! She had no weapons with her, of that he was absolutely sure. There was just nowhere to hide such a big and sharp weapon like the one he now felt piercing his insides, and she had no seals on her body, either... then what could it possibly be...?!

But the fact that she planned this was pretty obvious. Why else would she prevent him from screaming and thus alarming the people outside of his house of what's going on inside?

Just who the hell she was...?

But then this girl managed to surprise him once again – too fast for him to notice, she hit a few points on his neck, disrupting his chakra flow by blocking his tenketsu.

So she was a kunoichi, after all. A very strong one, since she managed to hide her chakra from him so well...

Her expression changed, too – now she was calm, cold and collected, the only emotion readable being maybe a slight disgust. Disgust of him? Probably...

Paralyzed by pain and the chakra disruption, he could only wait for her next move, which she made right away, taking the mysterious weapon out of him and pushing Jun off her body and off the bed, turning him around so that he faced the floor without being able to see a thing in the room, and sitting on his back just so that he couldn't move at all.

"You're gonna pay for this. It was probably the most disgusting thing I ever did." She uttered loud with apparent irritation in the voice, confirming Jun's earlier assumption.

But when he already opened his mouth to reply, a foreign, impassive voice sounded from the opposite side of the bedroom, beat him to it:

"You are a kunoichi. You may have to do things much worse than this if necessary." It was a man. What was going on...?

He could hear the girl growling.

"Not happening. I don't care about the village, I'm not doing anything like this anymore."

"And if I ask you?" He could hear the mysterious man smirk while the girl that incapacitated him growled in irritation again.

"You won't. You're too possessive to let it happen. I'm only _your_ tool, no one else's."

Jun heard as the man hemmed, smirking again.

"True. But you're overreacting."

She gasped.

"Overreacting?! This bastard stole my first kiss!" She blurted, and the guardian nearly forgot about his pain for a moment. Her first kiss...?! This bitch surely was well trained if this was true...

"Do I need to remind you who took mine?" The male voice muttered, and Jun suddenly could feel that the girl hardly suppressed the laugh.

"Fine. Touche. Anyway, you should hurry up. He's going to die soon if we don't do something."

"Yeah. Go dress up. I'll handle him for now. By the way, you're gonna patch him yourself. I told you to capture him, not to nearly kill him, so that mistake is yours to fix." He felt the girl getting up from his back, groaning in irritation and stepping away, and then someone grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, turning the man around to face his mysterious captor.

"Woah..." Jun hissed as he looked in his only visible black eye. "So a pair... of brats... took me... down... what... a shame..." It was hard for him to talk due to the immense pain he was suffering, but he still decided to keep his face up until the very end.

But the boy ignored his taunt.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm the last surviving member of Akatsuki, and I came here to take this village over. I will use you to do so, whether you like it or not. I advice you to cooperate – this way you won't have to go through unnecessary tortures and other unpleasant means."

Jun gasped, and then he suddenly smirked, finally recognizing the raven haired boy.

Perhaps now the wind of change was near.


	13. The Rain

**Chapter 13. The Rain**

Sasuke silently gazed upon the dark street through the tiny gap between the old, heavy drapes that prevented everyone outside Jun's apartment from peeking inside, thinking on his next move.

The mission to take control over Amegakure turned to be much harder than he originally assumed it's going to be – actually, the first complications started already with the infiltration part, let alone everything that came after that. Truth to be told, he was wondering how on earth they managed to come this far without utterly failing everything – it was a miracle, without a doubt. And although Sasuke wasn't superstitious nor religious, after everything the Uchiha went through, he actually was beginning to think that someone's powerful hand was guiding him up to that moment, carefully handing him everything he needed to receive, learn or suffer in order to improve, to move on to the next destination.

But he was fine with that. After all, even the Sage's sudden appearance back when the Uchiha had been killed by Madara's hand didn't quite surprise him. That felt... _right_. It was his... destiny? No, he didn't like this exact word, even though he used it quite a few times before for the lack of a better one.

Whatever power outside of their realm was driving his life, he was fine with it, especially after he found out about the existence of other dimensions and even worlds thanks to Kaguya, so probably nothing could amaze him at that point.

The real question was... what was the final destination of his path?

Nobody aside from Naruto knew about it, but, despite his usual seemingly immutable attitude, Sasuke always doubted himself and his decisions, and in the end it led to his imminent failure in the latest fight with Naruto in the Valley of the End – although it could seem like a draw to anyone else, since both of them were dying there, unable to move, he, Sasuke, could look deeper into it.  
He realized that his true defeat was in the battle of beliefs and paradigms.

Naruto always knew what he wanted. He always knew what he must do, what destiny awaited him. That's why he never wavered – because he truly believed that in the end, he was right anyway, even if he really wasn't. His faith in himself, in the righteousness of his decisions, this was his true power. Not the bijū, not the power gifted to him by the Sage, not his own skills.

These things were irrelevant when it came to the battle of wills. The battle of hearts. The battle of souls.

Sasuke always doubted himself, and that's why he could never truly win that battle.

Back then, giving up seemed like a viable option. To let Naruto, or rather Ashura, take care of everything. And what else could he possibly do anyway?

Sure, his plan would most likely work for some time. For years, decades, or even centuries he would hold the world in his iron grip, but then...

Even Kaguya was stopped – twice, as a matter of fact.

Nothing is eternal. In time, even the stars burn down.

It would be impossible to rule everything forever. Eventually, someone would take him down. And after that, the world would come back to it's usual, conflicted, _natural_ state.

And when he realized this flaw of his ideas a few months ago, when he was holding that dying Uzumaki woman in the Land of Whirlpools... the sudden idea came to him.

Perhaps the world didn't need to be changed?

He never told Hinata why exactly he felt so... wrong back there. So hurt. So... obliterated.

The girl probably thought it was because he felt compassion... that he pitied that old woman who was begging to be returned to the world of illusions.

But such assumption would be wrong. Actually, he couldn't care less about the woman specifically. People died here and there, every day, every hour. Everyone lost those dear to them, and much worse things happened. Even to him... the Uchiha never pitied himself and hated when others pitied him, but it didn't mean that he wasn't feeling pain of his own losses. A horrible, heartbreaking pain whenever he remembered their faces... mother... father... Itachi... the others...

But this pain became a part of him. And he accepted it as something he simply had to deal with for the rest of his life.

Because he had no other choice. He was a shinobi. He had to endure, no matter what.

And he did so.

But that Uzumaki woman... prior to the war, he would probably despise her for her weakness. For inability to withstand pain.  
Now, he knew that people differ from each other. She was weak, but it didn't necessary mean that she was trash.

Regardless, he cried back then definitely not because of compassion.

It was simply because there, at that particular moment, he realized better than ever before that he truly had no idea what to do anymore.

He felt lost.

Because during his relatively short travel with Hinata he witnessed quite a few things which he always escaped him before, and when he finally noticed them, he realized...

Their world was beautiful as it was. It never needed to be corrected by someone, be it Kaguya, Hagoromo, or him, Indra, to begin with.

There simply was no such thing as perfection. He wasn't perfect. Neither was Naruto. Or Hinata. Or anyone or anything else.

Infinite Tsukuyomi brought perfection into one's life in every sense, but... was it any good? His previous incarnation believed it was, and failed miserably.  
Because such world was fake. It lacked what defined life in Sasuke's opinion – imperfection. Flaws.

One can't understand the meaning of happiness if he doesn't know the opposite feeling. For instance, one can't feel the relief of being healthy if he never suffered sickness. Some people could spend ridiculously high amount of money on some exotic dish and simply throw it away because they didn't like the taste, while at the same time, a poor man who knew the feeling of starving would become absolutely happy by tasting some cheap rice.  
In other words, If one always just gets what he wants without any effort, it becomes routine, and there is no limit to the growth of the appetites – such person will always want more, more and more, and still won't become happy.

And if they actually felt happy within the Infinite Tsukuyomi where they had everything they ever dreamed of, it was paradoxical – such existence was a mere imitation of life. That's why the overwhelming majority of people who had been caught into Madara's jutsu were glad when Team Seven saved them from being trapped inside that fake world, even though they probably didn't realize the reason to it, or didn't even care to think on the matter.

But that was the difference between illusion and reality.

In reality, nothing was perfect nor pure. And considering how short their lives were in general... even if he would die of old age later, come to think about it, the time he had left was nothing compared to the history of shinobi. A mere flash, a spark within the eternity of unending conflict...

What was the point in wasting his life on trying to change the very nature of the world he was born in? The very nature of people themselves?

Back when Itachi finally explained his true motives to him in Kabuto's cave, Sasuke decided to surpass his brother in his intention of bringing peace. He now realized how childish was that desire to 'do it better than him'. Actually, looking backwards now and reflecting on the past, he found himself ridiculous, because the Uchiha didn't even truly understand Itachi's motives.

His brother did what he did because he wanted to preserve the things he cared about the most – the village itself, and him, Sasuke.

So, the right question to ask back then would be the following – what did he, Sasuke, truly care about?

Unlike before, now he could answer it.

He cared about the world – in a way that presumed it's existence and nothing else, so that's why he would fight against any power that tried to threaten it, be it Zetsu, Kaguya or whatever else.

He cared about his village – both because it was his only home and because his brother gave his life for its safety.

He cared about his clan – especially since he was possibly the last survivor, hence his highest priority right now was to prevent the extinction of his legacy no matter what.

He also cared about his friends – Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, Suigetsu, Jūgo, Karin, Orochimaru. These seven persons were the only few people remaining alive who he truly felt bonded with, aside from...

Hinata. Of course, he cared about her a lot by now, there was no denying it. Actually, he was anything but a delusional person, so he figured long ago what their relationship was slowly leading them into. After all, he was a young, healthy man, and she was a young, healthy woman, and both of them were far from being so shy to not be able to admit it, at least to themselves. It was especially notable with her, seeing how much the girl opened to him in those five months of their journey, revealing to both him and herself some things which always were suppressed by her family until now. And after everything they went through, by no means he considered Hinata a friend...

No, that sounded wrong. She was more than a friend. And by the way the Hyūga girl looked at him when she thought he wasn't seeing her, by the way she visibly felt around him, by how open and honest she was with him and only with him... the Uchiha knew that she had no delusions on the matter, either. Especially after that celebration of her birthday months ago, when both of them realized quite a few things...

Yet still, neither of them wanted to cross the dangerous line, both for their own reasons, though he could only guess which were hers while silently thanking the girl for not pushing anything.

His problem was rather easy to explain. Sasuke knew that he could never be her... boyfriend, or husband, or whatever else they called it. He just wasn't the type of person to simply settle down, to live a measured life, doing some boring paper job in Konoha like his father always did... to raise children without doing anything significant. Without using the power that was gifted to him for the purpose he still didn't grasp.  
Without searching for the answers.

And if he took that course of action now, if he crossed that line between the two of them, it would be inevitable, sooner or later – probably sooner, because they weren't getting younger with time passing, and he needed to produce an heir, or better a few of them.

But this girl was special. He couldn't simply impregnate her in order to give a start to his clan's revival and leave to travel afterwards. She deserved a much better fate.

That's why he had to do it with someone else at some point, there was no other choice. Which would most likely break her heart should they become something more than they were at the moment.

That's why he deliberately pushed her away over and over again ever since that night when it seemed to him that both of them realized something about their mutual feelings, ignoring the apparent frustration that was apparently growing in her more and more every day.

On the other hand, she traveled with him up to that point, and not even once Hinata displayed a slightest sign of displeasure, of wanting to stop.  
In fact, he doubted that she wanted to ever come back to Konoha for good – even in this they were much alike, and if only he didn't need to revive his clan... they could go on with their adventures for the rest of their lives.

That was a dead end, without a doubt. He couldn't let it go any further, yet still he also couldn't get away from it. The Uchiha knew that he couldn't bring himself to push her away in the same manner Itachi did to him, making Sasuke hate his beloved older brother. Such thought crossed his mind a few times, but he quickly brushed it away – after all, Itachi himself admitted that it was a wrong idea that nearly failed everything in the end.

There was no solution to this dilemma, no matter how hard he tried to come up with something.

So, the only thing he really could do for now was to stall, carefully avoiding any sexual interaction with the Hyūga. It wasn't easy though, especially since they spent nearly all their time together, usually even staying in the same room for the night whenever they stopped somewhere – sometimes it seemed to him that she tried to provoke him, willingly or not, dressing something... revealing when they were alone. Hugging him too tightly when she had an opportunity to do so. Trying to make him jealous sometimes... although he wasn't sure if it was her, or rather his own imagination and feelings.

At that point, nothing was clear, and Hinata, whatever was going on inside her beautiful head, didn't help at all.

"Will you stop moaning like a brat, or should I knock you out to loosen your pain...?" The said black haired girl growled in irritation for the fifth time within half an hour, making the Uchiha slightly flinch, being torn out of his thoughts like this.

Without turning his head, Sasuke could almost see the sly smirk on Jun's face.

"I'm not moaning of pain, sweetie... it's because of what your fingers do to me... ow-w!" He cried the instant the strong sound of a sonorous smack reached the Uchiha's ears. "Anything but my head...!"

"Why are you so concerned about it? It's absolutely empty anyway..."

"Well, apparently _Sasuke-sama_ doesn't think so..."

The Uchiha winced at the trace of apparent mocking in the man's voice and slightly turned his head.

"Quiet. Someone might hear your lovely chatting. You're being too loud and emotional."

Hinata sighed, making another stitch on Jun's abdomen and angrily glaring at Sasuke.

"It would've been much easier if you simply put him under a genjutsu..."

"I can't do it here, and you know it. We'll be spotted if we use anything that takes chakra. Now finish the job – the sooner you're done with him, the sooner we can go back to our hideout."

The girl rolled her eyes, turning back to her 'patient'.

"Can't wait to get rid of this perverted freak... one day, you'll pay for what you made me go through today, Sasuke..."

"Woah-woah-woah, wait, sweetie... how am I perverted? Last time I checked, it was you the one who was trying to literally rape me, and besides... ow-w-w! Wait, wait! Stop it, please!" He begged, clumsily dodging another slap. "I got it, got it! But still, didn't _Sasuke-sama_ say something about a spot for me? If my memories do not fail me, we'll be seeing each other quite often for the next few months, swee... okay, okay, I shut up! Just don't kill me!"

The Uchiha barely was able to hold his own laughter as he saw Hinata's infuriated expression. It was a rare occasion to see her so angry and furious, and, truth to be told, Sasuke enjoyed watching it when she was so passionate. It was so... unlike her. And also so...

Arousing...?

He tried to get rid of the images that flooded his mind for a moment – images of Hinata wearing the remains of the dress that Jun had torn apart when they entered the room, coming close to him and...

He quickly shook his head.  
This was getting worse and worse with each day passing.

"He's right, Hinata..." Sasuke quietly muttered, turning away again. "He's going to be a member of Akatsuki. You heard his terms – we grant him a spot, or he doesn't help us. It's not that big of a deal, honestly. You're not even teamed with him, so act more appropriate for your _superior_ position now."

For a split second, he could swear that she murmured something that sounded quite similar to 'superior position, my ass...', but the Uchiha decided to stick to the belief that he didn't manage to spoil her that much just yet.

"There you go. You are finished. Now we can finally leave. Sasuke... are we going?" She asked a few minutes later after finishing working on the man's wound, the final part being his own healing jutsu which every jōnin level shinobi could perform.

"Yeah..." the Uchiha nodded, finally stepping away from the window. "Gather our stuff, we'll be moving out in a minute. Jun." The injured man met the piercing gaze of Sasuke's only visible black eye, and his goofy expression instantly shifted to a serious one. "I just want to make sure that we understood each other correctly. Within the next few weeks, your job is to spread the rumor about the return of the local god as vastly as possible. I expect everyone in the village to hear about it at least once. I understand we're having quite a few people to talk to now, but once we're done for tonight, me and Hinata will lay low for a while. You'll be acting alone, on your own, without any guidance."

Jun nodded, slowly getting up to sit on his bed.

"Ye, ye, that's right... I assure you, once we sow the doubt and disbelief in the current government among our people, it will be fairly easy to overthrow the leader... or should I say 'the former leader'?" He smirked, stretching his arms. "Anyway, I've been thinking..."

Sasuke suddenly frowned and focused his attention. Was this man finally going to do something helpful on his own, without being forced...?

"Basically... I think I know the best way to convince everyone once the information is spread." He looked Sasuke in the eye again, being absolutely serious for once. "I'm not sure if you know it or not, but one of the reasons people considered Pain a god was the fact that during his reign, the weather... it was always raining here. The rain nearly never stopped until he died. They think it's a miracle, a god's whim... but we both know that it's merely a jutsu. If you can do the same trick with your left eye, well... it will be a piece of cake. But I don't know how can you pull it, being unable to use ninjutsu within the village..."

The Uchiha blinked before giving the bearded man a grin. He had a point... and perhaps he was going to be an asset for them, after all. Not a mere tool...

"Fine, I'll take care of it. Just be sure to do your own job. You know what's to happen if you betray us."

Jun rolled his eyes, getting up, putting a dirty shirt on and grabbing a bottle of some spirit drink from his table to lessen the pain.

"Yea, I know you'll destroy the whole village if I do so. I'm not stupid, you know – I'm aware of who you are and what you're capable of, so it wouldn't be wise of me to try something like that. Besides, we're in the same boat, really. I share your goals, and even the upcoming annexation of this country by Konoha doesn't really bother me as long as we're not gonna be slaves. It can't be worse here than it is now, and I can't change anything on my own anyway, so... whatever you do is good, I guess."

Sasuke nodded and stepped towards the exit, seeing as Hinata was already waiting for them near the door, fully dressed and hooded.

"I hope you're telling the truth, for your own good. Now, let's go to your friend."

The three of them went out of Jun's house onto the empty and calm night street, each with their own thoughts.

* * *

It was a weird night for Hanabi. Probably the weirdest one she had so far in her life.

First, Hiashi summoned her to tell the kunoichi that she was being put under direct command of the Hokage now. It didn't take her more than a second to realize that it meant she was an ANBU from now on – but such things usually weren't openly announced in their clan, since they didn't accept such orders gladly due to how prideful and independent Hyūga usually were. There was only one clan member aside from her in the ANBU at the moment, and he was Hiashi's spy. Did it mean that her father expected her to do the same now? Was this why he seemed quite enthusiastic to tell her the news?

"It's an honor, father." It truly was – after all, not every thirteen years old kunoichi achieved such position in such short time after graduating. It was acknowledgement of her talent.

"And I'm very proud of you, daughter. Now we'll finally be able to move on with securing our clan's safety and well-being."

So she was a part of his plans indeed. What a surprise...

"What do I need to do, father?" She asked calmly with indifference in her voice, just like she always did.

"I will reveal an S-rank secret to you now. It will concern your upcoming mission I'm about to give you. By no means you are to reveal it to anyone else without my direct permission – if you do, the punishment for such treachery will be death. Is it clear?"

"Yes, father." Her face didn't give away any emotions, although the girl really wanted to stab the man right away, now that she had a perfect chance to do so when he obviously totally wasn't expecting it. He didn't care about his children one bit, did he...?

"Your sister is alive."

Hanabi gasped in surprise, more because the girl didn't expect him to know it and not for the reason he assumed she did.

"I... don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything. As her father, it is my duty to deal with her. But she's still a rogue kunoichi, and I want you to do something concerning this matter while you work under the Hokage. " The man narrowed his eyes, scratching his chin. "I... suspect that the Sixth knows something about her whereabouts. If this is true, then he's likely providing her the cover while lying to us. Trying to fool our clan. That would be unacceptable. And if this... assumption comes true, considering all the other controversies between our clan and the village, we'll have no other choice but to start a rebellion. That's why your mission is extremely important. Our destiny will depend on your success. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I do." It seemed that she managed to not raise any suspicions, since the man sighed with apparent relief, turning away.

"Very good. Now go to the Sixth's office, he's summoning you."

"Yes, father."

The girl then quickly moved towards the Hokage's residence, hurried to tell Kakashi-sama what she's just found out.

"Is that so?" The masked shinobi mused, scratching his nape and putting his pen down to the table. "I guess we're very lucky that he trusts you so much to assign you to such mission. Otherwise we could be in big trouble right now. Good job, Hanabi."

"But he knows, Sixth-sama! How on earth can he know?!" She blurted, clenching her teeth and cursing herself for the impatience and boorishness.

"That..." Hatake got up from his desk and came close to the window, looking thoughtfully upon the street filled with bustling people. "Is a very good question. And your first mission as an ANBU will be to find it out. I haven't received any word from Sasuke ever since our last conversation over three months ago – we decided that it would be better to stop any communication considering that they needed to get used to being isolated from Konoha. They must have been spotted by someone from your clan, I suppose... but in this case, they either didn't do anything but informed Hiashi, or they could have attacked him and Hinata. In this case, knowing Sasuke, he most likely did put them under a genjutsu and let them go back, but we need more intel to be able to act accordingly. Once you find out how does he know that, there will be an S-rank mission for you... so, considering your age, I'm going to ask you: are you sure you'll be able to handle it?"

Hanabi quickly nodded, holding the ironic smirk. Even Hokage cared about her much more than her own father.

"Of course, Hokage-sama. Have no doubt."

She could see the man smile behind his mask.

"Very good. I will give you the instructions once you finish your current task. You'll also receive your uniform tomorrow in the morning. Dismissed."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" She jumped out of the opened window and already stormed back towards her clan's compound when the young kunoichi noticed some weird, nasty chakra in one of the narrow lanes to her left. Deciding to check it out, Hanabi activated her Byakugan and quickly moved to the location.  
There were two men – one of them was high, pale, with long, silky black hair and yellow eyes that looked like those of a snake. And the other one was a bit shorter, white haired, his eyes were violet and his teeth looked... strange. Disturbing even. He also carried a huge sword behind his back, and both of them were wearing similar dark gray cloaks.

Hanabi easily recognized the first one, but the other man was a stranger to her. Yet still, considering who the black haired one was, his companion wasn't to be underestimated.

Jumping out in front of them, the girl took a standard stance for jūken.

"Don't move, Orochimaru the Sannin. You're under arrest!"

The said man laughed, and the other one raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Is this some kind of a joke...? Go back to your mommy, midget, or..." He wasn't able to finish his sentence – she hit a few vital tenketsu on his neck and chest, and, to her surprise, the man suddenly fell down, turning into a puddle of water.

"Now, now, you don't have to be rude, Hyūga-san... it must be a misunderstanding. We mean no harm – actually, the two of us were invited for the private audience with the Hokage, and, as you could've noticed, we were heading just to his office before you... intercepted." He smirked, clearly not taking the girl serious, yet still being quite polite. A shinobi like him had no reason to be polite with someone like her if he was plotting something dangerous, right...?

The puddle began boiling as the water reformed itself into the white haired man who now looked a bit embarrassed, yet still he suddenly became curious as if he noticed something interesting in her.

"Orochimaru-sama... this girl looks quite similar to the one who Sasuke brought to us back then, don't you think so?"

Sasuke...?

The sannin smirked, nodding.

"Yes, the resemblance is unmistakable... you are Hiashi's younger daughter, right?" He asked, yet again unbelievably friendly and gently.

"I am... wait. What did you mean by saying 'similar to the one who Sasuke...' brought to you? Sasuke brought Hinata to you?!"

Orochimaru smirked.

"O-oh... I suppose you are the one Kakashi-kun mentioned to be his agent within the Hyūga clan... the irony. Considering your age, you remind me of a certain person now... I can only wish you don't repeat his destiny."

"What are you talking about?" She asked incredulously, still not lowering her defenses just in case but not really expecting them to attack her anymore.

He giggled annoyingly, striding forward and passing Hanabi by.

"I'm not the one to tell this story. Perhaps you should ask your sister one day? I'm sure Sasuke already told her... anyway, we need to meet Kakashi-kun. It wouldn't be polite to make him wait any longer, would it? So good, Hyūga-san."

"Yeah... see ya." The second man added, quickly following Orochimaru and giving the girl one last curious glance.

Following their backs with her dōjutsu, Hanabi stood there for good five minutes, trying to comprehend the information she's just received and to decide what to do with it.

If Sasuke brought Hinata to Orochimaru, and she was still with him, then it probably meant that the sannin was... sort of on Konoha's side, right? Then he probably didn't lie to her about the invitation from Kakashi-sama. And in this case... she had nothing to do with this. Hokage-sama was a wise man, and he obviously wasn't obliged to notify her of every detail of his plans.

After all, she was just a loyal kunoichi of Konoha.

She slowly walked back onto the street, crossing her hands on her still flat, to the girl's displease, chest.

What a weird night. And who was that man he compared her with anyway...?

* * *

Two weeks have passed since that night when they made Jun a part of their plans and met his friend – the gray haired barman named Mutsumi. Back then, Sasuke was pretty sure that it went perfectly fine – after all, when the Uchiha had shown the old man his Rinnegan, it seemed like he nearly had a heart attack, seeing the 'reincarnation' of their so-called 'god'.  
But, fortunately enough, after some talking later, the barman turned to be a wise and cunning man – after Jun explained their plan to him, he dropped the mask of a bigot and after that point, their conversation became very rational and constructive. It turned that he even had recognized Hinata as a Hyūga back when she was trying to lure Jun to their trap - after all, Byakugan wasn't a common thing in Amegakure.

Basically, Mutsumi realized that it wasn't really an offering – more like an opportunity. If they refused to cooperate, Amegakure would probably simply get demolished, and considering them having pretty high chances to die in action, it would most likely be the end of the story.

What neither him or Jun realized was that they actually fell for Sasuke's gamble – he never told them that should they refuse, another world war would begin, and Konoha itself would most likely be destroyed in this case, which, of course, was unacceptable.

So, basically, to them it was pretty simple – the Land of Fire wanted and could take over, and it was going to happen regardless of their decision. The only real choice they had was between being either killed or enslaved, and getting high benefits of serving the obviously winning side of this operation.

And, of course, just as Sasuke planned, their choice here was very predictable. Neither of them was a follower of the local ideology, but at the same time, both were very pragmatic, although Jun seemed to have more on his mind than he revealed to them.

Yet still, right now the Uchiha felt nervous, which was pretty unusual for him. Perhaps it was the frustration of waiting, since he and Hinata were basically completely isolated, hiding inside the abandoned apartment in the most poor district of Amegakure, barely going out of their room for two weeks straight by that moment... and, of course, since they couldn't risk being discovered until the right moment, they didn't receive any news from Jun or Mutsumi, and the scheduled day of executing their plan was still another week away.

Seven more days of silent torture and blind waiting...

He and Hinata nearly didn't talk at all ever since that day. They couldn't train, since the usage of chakra was forbidden, and apparently she was still hurt by what he forced her to do with Jun back then – especially since he decided to not discuss it when they came back to their temporary residence that night. So she was mostly ignoring him.

Not ignoring as in not replying to him and behaving like he wasn't there at all, but the girl never started a conversation on her own, and her replies to his rare routine questions were very short and cold. And he himself didn't want to burst that bubble of emotions that was growing more and more the longer they went on with that tension between the two of them. After all, any real conflict right now would put the whole plan at huge risk.

At least he managed to come up with an idea of how to start the rain Jun was talking about.

It was pretty tricky, but he had to give it a shot, since they decided that there was no better way of supporting the spreading rumors.

Each night, there was a huge burst of chakra inside the Tower where the current leader of the village resided. What they did there was a mystery to the Konoha ninjas, yet still, with the power of her eyes Hinata was able to estimate the magnitude of those bursts, and according to her conclusion, it was enough to cover any average chakra activity within the area around the Tower for a short time – from five to ten seconds.

So now he was going to head to the highest available building in that area, the one that was nearly as high as the Tower itself, which would be perfect as it was going to allow him to shorten the distance between him and the clouds without using any serious jutsu, and, if he managed to get onto it's roof undetected, the only thing he would have left to do would be using Deva Path to affect the clouds up in the sky in a certain way.

And although it sounded easy enough for a shinobi of his caliber, since he wasn't allowed to use chakra at all until he got there, that was by no means a trivial task, mostly because of the lack of intel concerning the route.

The Uchiha took the hood of his cloak on and turned his head to Hinata who was sitting on her bed for three times straight by now, reading some boring book she found on the shelving in their room.

"It's time. Are you going?" He asked, keeping deadpan expression.

The girl slowly raised her head, meeting his calm gaze.

"If you need me there, just order me to go." Apparently she decided to switch back to her submissive behavior, trying to make it seem as if she was a mere tool of his.

Just like she did when they were in the very beginning.

Silence fell upon the room, and after what seemed like a minute of peering in her blank, white eyes, the Uchiha sighed, slightly shaking his head.

"I'm not going to order you anything. If you don't wanna follow, suit yourself. I can make it on my own."

Without waiting for her reaction, he went out of their apartment, quietly closing the door behind his back and breathing the cold, refreshing air of the night. Looking around, he was trying to focus on the task he had to complete instead of his odd relationship with his student.

Truth to be told, he always felt mesmerized by the atmosphere of this village. It felt so different from Konoha that always was so warm and friendly... even without the rainy weather, the blind, dark windows of high, gray buildings, each made of the same gray, boring stone and rusty metal, without any sign of vegetation around felt so... calming. It was weird, but the Uchiha felt pretty comfortable while he was walking across the empty, nearly dead streets – another good, and, at the same time, bad side of Amegakure. People here always were either at work or home during nighttime, so he was completely alone there – exactly as he usually preferred, for Sasuke always disliked noisy places and crowds.

The opposite side of the coin there was that should a shinobi patrol spot him, he would have to take them down, and the Uchiha could only hope that they were no good, since his only weapons against them would be taijutsu and kenjutsu, which would most likely mean that a group of strong jōnin had pretty high chances if not to defeat him, but at least to alert the forces of the village for sure, and that would be unacceptable.

Carefully sneaking in between tight lanes, the raven haired shinobi tried to move without making any sounds while at the same time listening to any signs of the upcoming hostiles. It was a strong relief to him – finally there was some action. Yet another confirmation of his recent conclusion – living in a village and sitting either home or in an office certainly wasn't his thing. Not his at all.  
Sitting in one room for two weeks without being able to move or do anything truly made him sick. Perhaps Hinata was mad about it, too? And not about his attitude...?

Silently cursing and trying to get rid of these thoughts again, he suddenly stopped, holding his breath. There was a patrol just few yards away from him behind the corner of the building he was currently walking nearby. Leaning against the wall, the Uchiha nearly stopped breathing at all. Right now, he almost prayed for them to not notice him... it would be so unfortunate, considering how close he already was to his destination...

But apparently they didn't expect to notice anything suspicious there, too absorbed by their quiet discussion of something.

Excellent.

Giving them a few minutes to move out of dangerous range, Sasuke stormed towards the iron fencing that restricted anyone from coming to the territory of the factory – apparently the high building he was heading to was a part of it. It was barely guarded by anybody aside from a few civilians who were probably sleeping in a small shack near the official entrance – people of Amegakure were too submissive and too frightened to try to enter without permission.

Of course, they couldn't imagine some foreign S-class shinobi infiltrate the civilian building one night... and what could he possibly need here anyway?

Sighing at the nonchalance of the local police force, he jumped over the fencing and rapidly snuck through the shadows to the main door of the industrial building, opening it – of course, there was no lock at all.

There was a night shift, obviously, but it seemed almost as if people couldn't care less what was happening outside of their workplaces – he could just sit there on the ladder that led to the roof and get drunk, and nobody would notice him. Did they truly believe in their system that much? How could everybody there be so brainwashed...? Or rather... intimidated?

No matter. Things were about to change. He was the one to help them open their eyes and see the truth. But first, he needed to help Jun destroy this system from the inside. By becoming it's head, for instance.

Sasuke stopped on the twenty first floor, coming closer to the window and glaring at the Tower. They were there right now, performing some weird rituals, according to Jun... trying to maintain the control over that mysterious weapon their leader believed to be his trump card. What could it possibly be? Some engineering? Or perhaps an artifact...? And the leader himself...

They considered an option to simply storm in and take the man and his fellows down, but that could cause a civil war in this country, since people would see them as nothing but usurpers or even worse – intruders. Yet still it was so tempting to use his Susanō at the moment, to fly in there, kill that bunch of bigots and take the village over by brute force alone, like he would've made it before. Old times, old times...

Fortunately he was smarter than that now.

Trying to make haste in order to not miss the chakra burst coming out of the tower, he jumped across the next few staircases, and then the Uchiha suddenly stumbled upon the locked door to the roof. It was ridiculous – why would they possibly need to lock it? To prevent the employers from coming upstairs to enjoy the beautiful view...?

Breaking the poorly made lock, he stepped onto the creaking rooftop, coming close to the edge and sitting down. The Tower appeared nearly lifeless from his current spot, which was no wonder since there were only seven people inside right now, including Jun – considering the size of the massive construction, it could be called empty.

All he could do now was to wait. And meanwhile, he had some time to think on his next move. His... since when he began excluding Hinata from his plans, though? But seeing how passive she became recently... perhaps she was finally tired from him? And now he could send her back to Konoha, or wherever she wanted to go? This would actually solve his little problem with the slowly, yet imminently emerging feelings towards the rogue Hyūga. He would be alone again... just like he was now, sitting there and ignoring the piercing cold wind that was waving his hair, making the Rinnegan eye perfectly visible. Not like there was anybody to see it, of course...

After half an hour of waiting, deep in his depressing thoughts, he suddenly flinched, hearing the sound of quiet rustling behind his back. Even without turning around to check it, he already knew that someone opened the door... damn it. Of course... he forgot to put the broken lock back onto it's place.

He was getting rusty himself with all that power he possessed, forgetting how to deal with the stealth missions accordingly...

Slowly getting up, he turned around to face the three masked shinobi who were focused on him, yet none of them dared to make the first approach.

They probably noticed his left eye... nice.

"Can I help you?" He asked in slightly mocking tone, fighting the urge to charge at them right away. He couldn't allow himself to succumb to panic – there could me more of them on the lower levels and outside of the building in case they were tracing him from the very beginning.

And if they did... it was possible that they have already caught Hinata.

No. She wouldn't simply give up and let them capture her. And if she initiated a fight, which she most definitely would, the girl would also be forced to use chakra – even her new kekkei genkai required it to decrease the backlash. And in this case, there was no chance in hell he would be their target at the moment. Which most likely meant this was the only group after him right now... or not.

He couldn't put anything at risk. Not when everything depended on his success right now... Hinata, Naruto, Konoha, the whole world...

"Who the hell are you?" Asked the one who stood between the other two – their leader, as the Uchiha presumed. A kunoichi, not a kid, judging by the height.

And then the sudden idea came to him.

"I'm the god." He simply said, and just in time to support his words, another swirl of wind made his Rinnegan clearly visible to them.

"No way...! So... the rumors are true...?" Whispered the other shinobi.

"Silence, Toshiro! This is an intruder!" Roared their leader while Sasuke continued watching them with indifference, not uttering a word.

"How can you say so, Yui-sama?! Did you see his eye?!" The third one yelled, pointing at the Uchiha and stepping back. "It's true! The god's returned!"

"I told you to shut up and do what I tell you to do! He's not our leader, and we must obey the orders we received! Seize him! Now!"

"The fuck?! You want me to attack the god himself?! I'm out of this shit, you stupid bitch! Kami-sama, please!" One of the shinobi fell to his knees and lowered his head. "I'm at your service! Please, spare me from your wrath! I knew the current leader's not you, and I always believed you were going to return! And here you are now, in flesh! I... I won't follow her orders anymore! My life is yours and only yours to take... I... I..." He suddenly took a kunai and slashed his own throat, falling down, coughing with blood, his face expressing nothing but pure bliss.

The Uchiha found himself nearly shaking as he saw the man's eyes which he couldn't take off his new-found god – even in his death, the mind of this shinobi was desperately clinging to the idea of praising someone powerful... this was truly scary. How could someone be so blind and so bigoted...? To give his life... for nothing? Just like that? And to think that there was the whole settlement of people like him...

This was much more frightening to him than Kaguya. He needed to do something about them. To open their eyes. To make them see the world outside of this hell of a country.

He couldn't take them as tools which were going to serve his plans anymore. Not after this.

And the kunoichi leading the other two seemed nearly as shocked as he was, yet still she managed to collect herself, yelling:

"What are you waiting for, Toshiro, you mongrel! Go get him!"

"Y-yes!" The man charged at Sasuke, and the Uchiha carefully blocked the weak attack – apparently this one did what he was told to do only out of fear.

"Please, kill me..." Toshiro suddenly whispered, desperation clearly readable in his eyes. "I want the god to take my life, not that crazy whore..."

He couldn't handle it anymore. But he had to... or did he?

And then he felt it. The huge burst of chakra coming out of the Tower, covering the space around them completely.

 _The time is now...! But what to do with these two...?_

The questioned answered itself before Sasuke could make a decision – the woman suddenly gasped the same moment he saw her being knocked out by a long, sharp piece of armature.

He smiled. Just in time...

Looking up, the Uchiha quickly used his left eye's power as he glanced at the clouds above his head – they quickly shifted their shape as soon as he did so, covering the stars and the moon completely.

"I though you would need some help when I saw these three following you... but I can see you're doing alright on your own. Just like you always did, right...?" Hinata stepped away from the kunoichi's lifeless body, dropping the improvised weapon and coming closer to the man who was now shaking in fear and awe, standing before Sasuke on his knees.

"Yeah... I'm fine, thank you. I was about to use Amenotejikara to kill her - you spared me a whole second. Good job." He smirked as she snorted, rolling her eyes. "What about the last one?" She asked, coming closer and taking a kunai out of her holster.

"He will serve our goals just right... listen, you. Toshiro, right?" The man quickly nodded, still afraid to close his eyes and not noticing his month being wide opened.

Sasuke ducked and looked the shinobi in the eyes.

"The god has a mission for you."

"A mission...?" The man mumbled stupidly – he clearly didn't see that coming.

"Yeah, a mission... I want you to go home now, and the next morning, come to your superiors and tell everyone that this woman killed your fellow here, and was punished by the god for doing so. Then, announce my return. They will probably decide that you're insane and imprison you, since there is nobody to confirm your words, but don't worry. I'll set you free shortly. And then..." Sasuke got up, glancing down at the now incredibly excited and awed shinobi. "I'll show all of you the truth. Go now, Toshiro. Don't fail me."

"I won't, Kami-sama! I'll do as you say! I swear! Thank you, thank you so much! I knew, I knew it! I'm the chosen one!" He jumped up and ran towards the door, not even caring to look at Hinata who silently followed the man's back with her wide open white eyes, apparently too shocked by what she's just witnessed

"What... was that?" She finally mumbled, turning her head to Sasuke.

A rain drop fell on his nose.

"Not much... apparently Jun wasn't lying when he said that they all are brainwashed."

"I guess he wasn't... that was quite something."

"Yeah, it was."

They silently looked in each other's eyes, not saying anything as the rain started, quickly making both of them completely wet. But they didn't seem to mind, too absorbed by what was going on inside their heads. Nobody seemed to want to break the oppressing, yet somewhat peaceful silence... and they didn't notice the kunoichi's body disappear, bursting in a cloud of smoke in the way they could find familiar if they payed attention.

Hinata suddenly lowered her eyes the way she always did in the first month of their journey, to avoid his piercing gaze.

"Why?" She quietly uttered. He couldn't hear it, but the movement of her lips was perfectly readable with his Rinnegan.

"Why what?" He asked bluntly, not moving his eyes away from the soaked girl who suddenly didn't look like a dangerous kunoichi she was at all.

"You know what. I want to know why. What's wrong?"

Of course he knew. But he couldn't show it. Because he didn't know if he would be able to withstand the temptation if he did...

"You know better. You were avoiding me for the last two weeks."

"And you don't understand why?" She asked a bit louder, still refusing to look him in the eyes again.

Was this really inevitable, after all...?

"No, I don't." He snapped after a short pause.

The girl gave him a weak smile, slightly shaking her head.

"You're such a liar, Uchiha Sasuke."

She was right, of course. That he was. But he never promised to be honest with her to begin with, or did he...?

"You know I never do anything without a reason." He finally said, and for a second he felt like his voice was about to break.

"A reason...?" She finally stepped towards him, clenching her fists. "For what damned reason you're pushing me away?! For what damned reason you forced me to kiss that filth?! For what freaking reason you act as if you're a complete idiot who doesn't notice anything around him?! Am I not good enough for you?! After everything we went through, you decided to humiliate me like this... just because I want to be closer to you?! This is your revenge, huh? Figured as much! And here I started to forget that you're almighty avenger! Are you happy now?!" She cried, covering her face with her shaking palms. "How can you be so cruel...?" Hinata nearly whispered.

"I do what I must." He suddenly snapped, turning his head away and looking at the Tower again. This was probably as hard to him as his last fight with Naruto... no, even harder than that. At least back then he was fighting, not trying to break the bond with his closest person alive with words alone.

"And what is it you must do?" The girl asked, her tone suddenly becoming strong and full of resolve. She was looking at him now, and this time he couldn't find the strength to face her. How did he manage to miss the moment when he began losing this battle...?

"You know it all. I need to serve Konoha. The world. I need to revive my clan."

"So what? What does it have to do with us?"

Her answer shocked and confused the Uchiha, making him look at her with disbelief.

"You really don't understand it?"

"No. I don't. Please, enlighten me."

He growled in anger. This girl was impossible... now she was playing the stupid one there?! This trick wasn't going to work on him.

"Alright, I will. Do you understand that I'll never be able to do it with you?! If I do, you won't ever become my wife, I won't be able to raise our children, and we'll eventually be separated, probably forever."

"And?"

Sasuke gasped. He literally couldn't believe his ears. Was this really Hinata, or some weird genjutsu? Or perhaps a dream...? No, the downpour felt too real...

"And...? Are you serious?! Are you fine with such fate?!"

"I am."

"Why?!" He came close enough to her to feel the girl's calm breath. "How can you be so blind and stupid?! How can _anybody_ agree to such life?!"

And then she smirked sadly, meeting his angered eyes.

"You still haven't realized it, have you? And you call _me_ stupid..."

She wrapped her slender, shaking hands around him and pulled the Uchiha even closer to whisper in his ear:

"I told you once before... you saved me from a fate much worse than death. You made me the person I am now, and you showed me what does it mean to live. You are everything to me, Sasuke. I have nobody else in my life. I would gladly die for you if I had to. And no matter what you decide to do in future..." She slightly pulled away from the boy to look in his lost eyes and smiled. "I will always love you."

Lightning pierced the leaden clouds, and the shadow of the two kissing teens fell upon the Tower for a split second.

* * *

 **INB4 "Hanabi is younger than 13 y.o. in canon" - I'm aware of that, but I decided to make her a bit older here since I don't think it's that important all in all, yet I have a very good idea for her character for the future chapters, and I believe that what I'm preparing for her will make more sense if she's 1-2 years older than she is according to the databooks.**


	14. Stalemate

**Chapter 14. Stalemate**

Hinata scowled as the ice cold drops of rain were falling onto her face, making it more and more uncomfortable for the girl to stand the annoying waiting. Sasuke and Jun were quietly discussing something she had no interest in, and unlike her the two of them looked pretty comfortable at the moment. They – their team, that is - had to wait for the shift of the Tower's guardians before attempting to infiltrate the huge, ugly – at least in her opinion - building, and it's been approximately two hours of standing there by now, doing nothing but trying to catch a cold thanks to the damned weather.

The rain... she certainly didn't like it. She never quite enjoyed rain in the past, and now it was especially unpleasant – mostly because the kunoichi still felt incredibly lonely and frustrated, even though her relationship with the Uchiha came back to what it was before it's crisis... well, sort of. And the weather, as well as Sasuke being seemingly alright in such conditions - quite unlike her - didn't make it any better for the Hyūga.

Of course, she didn't hope for Sasuke to change his mind the instant she told him about her feelings. He didn't give any real response to them, actually – not counting that kiss, of course. That was truly incredible.  
But afterwards they just went back to their normal behavior with each other. And although something definitely had changed that night on the roof, both of them were reluctant to openly admit it – for a good reason.

Despite the really stressful situation they were going through for the last few weeks, Hinata wasn't a bad kunoichi. At least not anymore. She realized that they had to accomplish their mission above everything else, especially above their personal feelings – they were insignificant comparing to their country's well being. Sasuke realized it too, obviously – therefore both of them made a silent agreement: what happened back then on the roof of the building she was currently thoughtfully gazing at was merely due to the frustration of doing absolutely nothing for way too long, being locked together in a single room for three weeks straight – these things hardly were healthy for one's psyche.

Of course, they would deal with their relationship later – probably much later, considering how dramatic the upcoming events could possibly turn should their rather doubtful plan fail.

Still, she was feeling the strange anger slowly building inside of her as Hinata watched the Uchiha casually chat with that piece of abomination he invited to join their group – Sasuke's attitude didn't give away anything that could seem like being bothered at all. Truth to be told, if she didn't know him so well, the girl would most likely decide that he's either a bastard who doesn't care about her specifically or an idiot who doesn't care about anything at all. Of course, either of these options would be much easier to accept, but now they sounded ridiculous to her considering everything she discovered about his past and his true nature.

And that was the problem for her – for the first time in a while, she couldn't figure him out. What was he thinking about her? About _them_? About that kiss? About their operation? About this... Jun? Did he truly enjoy talking to him more than he enjoyed talking to her...? Why was he basically ignoring her whenever this man was around?!

The Hyūga brushed the strands of rain off the sleeve of her brand new dark coat, looking down for a second to once again see the pattern she used to fear so much... the Akatsuki symbol. Red clouds. How come she was wearing it now...? She, the girl who used to be afraid of her own shadow...

Fate was truly ironic.

Back when Sasuke was teaching her, shortly after she had left Konoha, Hinata felt like she desired to completely destroy the person she was, and to create a new one. To become someone else.

Did she succeed?

Yes, in a way. The girl certainly was different now – much different from before, actually. If she returned to Konoha now, everyone would probably believe that she was brainwashed, under genjutsu or something among these lines – the visible changes in her were too clear, and she wouldn't try to soften the impression - because why the hell would she want to? Hinata most certainly wouldn't let them see through her mask. She would never reveal her weaknesses to them. Not after it led to so much pain in the past.

After all, Sasuke taught her to deceive really well.

But... her passionate desire to be someone else still wouldn't become reality, not matter how good and strong her mask would become.

It was true that Hinata changed – there was no denying this fact. But on the contrary, she realized that it was impossible to get rid of some things from her past – it would require to erase her memories completely, which she certainly didn't want. Any experience, no matter how painful it was – it became a part of her. This was what made her stronger. What made her realize her mistakes and flaws. And these realizations were priceless.

Yet still Hinata knew that no matter how strong she'd become, deep inside, she still was that hurt, closed and insecure girl everyone remembered. And she would never be able to get rid of that – which meant she had to accept it and move on, simple as that. There was no other way, after all.

But at the same time, Hinata believed that people are able to change. Everyone could become better if they put enough effort in it. Which she did, for... for Konoha? For Naruto? For her clan? To prove her father and her family that they were wrong, that she was better than they thought?

Or she did it for Sasuke?

No. That would be a lie to say so, and she didn't want to ever deceive herself anymore. The truth was that Hinata did it for herself and only for herself. She needed to change, she craved it, because she used to be awful. A pathetic, useless worm that deserved nothing but pity, that's what she was before. And remembering it now was embarrassing to say the least – that's why everything she did in the last few months was desperately trying to change for the sake of satisfying her own ego. To atone for her sins before herself. To be able to live comfortably in this world which she used to think was cruel, but in reality it was just... indifferent. Indifferent to her own and to everyone else's dreams, struggles, desires and pain.

Because she, them – they were no ones. Their lives were nothing compared to the history of shinobi. They were mere sparks in the immense darkness.

And only when the girl had realized it back in their hideout when she was reading another stupid book only to distract herself from her physical frustration... she also realized once again that Sasuke was the same, in a way. Considering the events he himself told her about, and everything he went through... under the shell of the almighty shinobi - even godly from a certain perspective, the Uchiha still remained a lonely child whose life was ravaged multiple times in the past. He was hurt, deeply so.

Of course, he was the chosen one. He and Naruto, both of them – as far as she understood from that vision. They weren't nobodies, far from it – these two decided the fate of their world.

Which led Hinata to the simple conclusion - no matter how powerful you became, some things would never change. Both Sasuke and Naruto were still only humans, each with his own past and pain, with the same problems everyone else went through.

And right now, the Uchiha was the only person she could open to. And she was the same for the raven haired boy - she just knew it.

Was that why he decided to push her away once again? Because he wanted to stay alone, like he used to prior to his fight with Naruto? Or was it only because of their mission...?

Hinata clenched her fists, looking away and checking the street to their right. Usually there were nobody out so late. Now, there were quite a few people sneaking around, slowly uniting in small bunches.

Was something about to happen on that side?

According to what Jun reported, with each day passing, more and more people started to believe that their 'true god' was about to return and that the current one was fake.  
After all, even such bigots didn't fancy being fooled – that's why many of them started to try to resist, breaking the rules this village followed for so many years. For instance — going out after the curfew like they did now.

Sasuke's plan clearly was working, which was good for their mission. But... they still didn't know what awaited them inside the Tower. According to Jun, the guards wouldn't be any trouble – the only man of decent skill there was their leader, but... there also was that weird 'weapon' he had mentioned, the girl they brought a few weeks ago. Apparently their leader was obsessed with her for some reason – he didn't do anything but trying to 'stabilize' her for the last few weeks, which sounded weird, again. The only idea she and Sasuke came up with was that the girl was, in fact, a jinchūriki. After they explained the concept of sealing the tailed beasts in a human body, he agreed that it their assumption most likely was correct, and that the leader sealed a bijū inside of her, but... which bijū, exactly?

No matter which one - to her, a jinchūriki would be a trouble to deal with. Fortunately enough, Sasuke could take care of a bijū if they managed to free the beast and thus kill it's host. Still... she felt quite nervous. The Hyūga just had that feeling that something was ought to go wrong – the smoothness of their performance up to that moment only strengthened her insecurity.

And then her eyes widened in surprise - the people on the street suddenly formed one big crowd, a few torches lighted up their angry faces, and they marched towards the Tower's entrance, the discordant chorus of their voices instantly drawing attention of a few shinobi patrols.

A scrimmage started.

"It's time. Get ready. We're going." The Uchiha suddenly snapped, jumping onto the edge of the balcony they were standing at.

"Affirmative." Jun replied, still smirking – apparently he found something Sasuke told him just prior to that quite amusing.

But she thought that it was probably for the best that she didn't hear that part. The girl silently joined them, standing to the right of _their_ leader.

And then Hinata blushed, felling as Sasuke's palm impertinently tapped her slightly below her waist, doing it so lightly that only her would be able to notice it.

"Don't worry. It's gonna be alright. Just do your best." The girl could hear him whispering in her ear, blushing even deeper as she felt his hot breath.

"Just don't screw everything yourself, _kami-sama._ " Hinata muttered and he smirked, jumping forward.

Meeting Jun's playful gaze for a second, she quietly cursed, turning away and following the Uchiha.  
Breaking through one of the Tower's windows, which was fairly easy since they were now able to freely using their chakra considering that everyone outside were too busy to react to the foreign chakra activity, they landed onto one of the empty staircases. As they expected, there was nobody inside – only the cold, howling wind that made Hinata shiver a bit.

"Well done, Jun. I didn't expect this to go this perfectly." Sasuke casually wiped the dust off his cloak, looking upstairs.

The bearded man smirked.

"Told you. I know this village too well. They are way too predictable."

The Uchiha nodded distantly, and Hinata barely managed to suppress a grimace — just how cocky could this moron become...? And how could Sasuke even tolerate his attitude?

The way to the top of the Tower felt quite easy, at least to her. Too easy, actually – deceptively so, making the girl think for a second that the rest of their task would be equally simple.

A loud scream of agony echoed through the tower, making the three of them stop and look above worriedly.

It just so happened that Hinata decided to scan the hall they were heading to with her Byakugan – since they already knew what awaited them there and had a plan to counter all of their opponents according to the available intel, it didn't feel like being a necessity.

That's why she gasped in awe, gripping Sasuke's wrist and stopping them once again when they were only two floors away from the entrance.

"What is it?" He blurted, clearly knowing that Hinata wouldn't react like that without a very good reason.

She swallowed hard before whispering:

"It's... we were right. It's a jinchūriki." The girl wasn't moving the piercing gaze of her white eyes out of the certain point above them.

"Yeah... figured as much. So? Which one?" He uttered impatiently, peering at the girl.

"It's... Sasuke, it's the Kyūbi...!"

Now it was the Uchiha's turn to gasp in surprise.

"The... the Kyūbi?! How the hell is that possible...? Surely nothing could happen to Naruto while we were here..."

"I know, but didn't Naruto let the other half of his tenant stay free? I thought he mentioned that back when the two of you were about to fight..." She mumbled perplexedly, still looking at the girl who was now wriggling on the floor of the grand, empty hall, screaming in terrible agony – the lashes of the demonic chakra Hinata herself once used to utilize during the war were now bursting out of the poor captive's body chaotically, as if she wasn't able to hold the bijū inside her body properly, which was weird – the seal on her abdomen seemed to be pretty decently made.

Sasuke suddenly clenched her shoulders, shaking the Hyūga and making her meet the wary gaze of his only visible Sharingan eye.

"How do you know that?!" He asked exactingly, making the girl want to hit herself for being so careless to mention the contents of the vision she witnessed a few months ago.

"I..." She stopped for a second, not knowing what to say on the matter at the moment. She didn't even know why she avoided this conversation for so long – perhaps the girl just didn't want to ruin the privacy of his memories to him? "Can we talk about it later?" She nearly begged, making the Uchiha see that she didn't intend to hide it from him anymore – it just wasn't the right place and time to discuss that.

After a few seconds of being locked in the silent eye contact with her, he sighed, letting the girl go and glancing at the ceiling above them.

"Fine... but I still don't understand, how on earth did they manage to capture the Kyūbi? Is there even any way to control it aside from Sharingan...?" He then paled, meeting her eyes again. "Don't tell me..."

Hinata looked up through the walls of the building again, covering her mouth with her palm a second later after focusing her eyes on the man that stood next to the jinchūriki, rapidly weaving hand signs.

She then met Sasuke's shocked gaze, not being able to utter a word – it was at this point obvious anyway.

He sighed, closing his eyes.

"Fine... I should've expected something like that. Jun, we're changing our plan." The man didn't argue, seeing how tensed the Uchiha suddenly became. "You're gonna take care of the other guardians... alone. Can you make it?"

The bearded man shrugged.

"I guess... they are just a bunch of neophytes anyway. Shouldn't be much of a difficulty."

Sasuke nodded, sighing heavily.

"Good. Hinata..." He glanced at Jun again, suddenly looking a bit insecure which was quite unlike the Uchiha's usual self. He stepped closer to the girl, lowering his eyes. "Under different circumstances, I'd never ask you to do it. But... I have no other choice. Can you...?"

She met his Sharingan eye again, trying to not show any sign of fear.

That's probably what she felt was coming – and it was horrible to say the least. Originally they intended to quickly kill the leader, and then to take care of his 'weapon' – but of course, that sounded too easy for the likes of them. Luck was probably too much of a luxury to ask from fate at that point...

Now that they discovered that the leader of Amegakure was, in fact, exactly who Sasuke had been looking for this entire time – his lost relative, the surviving descendant of the Uchiha clan – killing him was not an option. Therefore Sasuke needed to take him out of the fight and give the man a talk... a long one, considering everything...

Which meant she was the only one who could and would have to deal with the jinchūriki - on her own, considering that Jun would be busy fighting the guards, and he wouldn't be much of a help against such a foe anyway... not to mention that the Hyūga would rather have her arms cut off in action than fight alongside with that smug retard.

But then she noticed something in Sasuke's gaze, something... unexpected... it was...

The girl could feel her heart skip a beat as she finally realized what was truly going on with her companion right now.

Hope. This was his... no, _their_ hope. If he somehow managed to save a survivor from his clan, it would mean that the burden of responsibility of reviving his family would come off his shoulders. He would become free to live the life he wanted to live. And maybe... to be with her?

If that's what he was thinking right now, then it made perfect sense, considering how important was finding this man to him even prior to all... this. And now, that's why he was going to put everything at stake.

Even their mission.

Hinata smiled reassuringly and hugged the Uchiha.

"Don't worry... I understand. Just be sure to make it in time. I will stall the jinchūriki as long as I can, but I doubt I'll be able to take her down on my own."

He nodded, hugging the girl as well, ignoring Jun's mocking whistling.

"I know. I'll be there as soon as possible. Just make sure to survive."

"I will."

She could feel that he wanted to kiss her again, for the first time since the events on that roof a week ago, but apparently Jun's giggling spoiled the moment – Sasuke hesitantly let her go and turned away, jumping over another flight of stairs. "Let's go!" He yelled, and they quickly followed.

There were no locks – apparently the leader never considered a possibility of anybody aside from his trusted guardians daring to enter the Tower. That's why when the three persons wearing the famous Akatsuki coats entered the great hall, the man didn't even care to pay any attention to his unexpected guests.

"Jun! Come over hear and help me maintain the control over this damned seal! It's getting out of my grasp again...!" Hinata silently watched the man shout, taking her usual fighting stance and waiting for Sasuke's signal.

The Uchiha stopped, eyeing the crying, agonizing girl that was now lying on the floor, twisted by the flows of red chakra as her body was nearly being torn apart by the lashes of this familiar energy.

"Sorry, Yutaka-sama. I'm afraid I'm not going to follow your orders anymore." Jun said casually, making the remaining five guardians turn to them and drew their weapons as they noticed the unexpected visitors.

The Uchiha clan's descendant slowly turned to them, and Hinata expected Sasuke to visibly react somehow, but he didn't, despite the man's activated Sharingan with three tomoe being clearly visible.

"What's the meaning of this, Jun...?" He slowly uttered, brushing a strand of his reddish dark hair away from his face. "Who are these two you brought here? Why are you wearing these...?" He asked, clearly getting more and more nervous as the realization of their possible identity was slowly coming to him.

"Oh, they...?" Jun smirked. "The two of them are the ones who are going to take over. I suppose I should let the new leader of the village introduce himself... right, _kami-sama_?" He smirked, and for a split second it seemed to Hinata that the man she couldn't stand winked at the younger Uchiha who now looked collected, yet still the tiniest bit nervous, although it was probably only her who were able to notice it – they didn't know him as well as she did.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm the last surviving member of Akatsuki. I believe we have a lot to talk about... first of all, your former subordinate is right. I am here to take the control over this country, but I'd like to discuss a few things with you first. I suggest a peaceful conversation, if you please." He added, which was quite unusual, even weird for Sasuke – but Hinata quickly realized that it was probably the first time for him to talk to someone from his clan as a mature and as the said clan's head, so he probably didn't really know what to say and how to behave with this new man.

Yutaka laughed maniacally, gripping the jinchūriki girl's arm and pulling her towards himself.

"To do so, you will have to go past her first! I'm not going to let you traitor have everything so easily!" He snapped, hatefully looking at Jun who simply spread his hands, sighing.

"Told you, he's a tough one." Sasuke ignored his comment – Hinata felt a strong wave of chakra coming out of her companion's body, and then he was already gripping Yutaka's neck just a second later, glancing at her with his Rinnegan over his shoulder.

"Hinata... take care of her, will you?"

The Hyūga girl quickly nodded.

"I will! Don't worry!"

Sasuke waited for a moment, and then nodded in return, disappearing along with his clansman as he used his Rinnegan's ability she was already familiar with – Amenotejikara. It's range was limited, she knew that much – which meant they were somewhere close, probably still inside the building.

Nevertheless, she and Jun were now on their owns against an unstable jinchūriki and a bunch of bigots, each of them on the level of elite jōnin...

"Jun..."

"Yes, princess?" She ignored his usual addressing, trying to be as collected and serious as possible – in a way, she was imitating Sasuke's attitude which she always considered to be the most suitable for a real fight. "Are you certain that you'll be able to handle them on your own?"

"What kind of question is that?" He blurted, snorting. "The sole fact that you're so hot for Sasuke that you didn't even allow me to relax and have fun with you doesn't mean that I'm not a capable man, you know..."

She rolled her eyes, not able to suppress a slap her face with her palm.

"Remind me, why shouldn't I kill you right away, you moron?"

He smirked.

"Probably because you have a jinchūriki to take care for... more than ample for one evening, ain't it?"

She slowly nodded, watching the brown haired girl slowly being covered by the familier red, demonic chakra, three tails appearing from her back.

"I guess... you are right. Anyway, you better don't survive this – if you do, you can have my word that your death will eventually be caused by _my_ hand. Sooner or later."

"Meh, doubt it. You'll be too busy shagging your godly boyfriend. Perhaps he'll be able to smoothen your bitchy attitude at least? After all, he seems like a cool guy for a brat..."

Hinata could feel herself blushing horribly now, but for some reason, the girl felt relieved – almost as if it wasn't a legendary demon she had to face right now, but rather a funny game she had to play along.

"And perhaps you should finally get yourself a woman to spend time with, you loser? Simply doing what you do, imagining me every time you are in a shower won't be any good for you..."

"And who said that I'm imagining you only when I'm showering, darling?" She rolled her eyes, seeing the fourth tail appear and the girl's body being covered with dark red chakra as the transformation into the beast began.

"Still, you are but a loser compared to Sasuke."

"Hey, you don't need to be so offensive. I'm only trying to clear the air here, you know. After all, both of us are about to die." He mumbled, and Hinata suddenly smiled, feeling the unexpected sympathy for the man – it was the first time when she felt him being a part of their team for real.

"Fair enough. But spare the talk. We have a job to do. Let's go!" She charged towards the raging demonic creature, dodging a swing of it's tail and channeling the lightning chakra into her right hand's.

She was careful to wait for an opening to strike, but her attempt to damage the beast with her jūken failed miserably – instead of destroying the jinchūriki's tenketsu, Hinata just burned her fingers, and then she gasped in surprise and fear – the claws of the bijū nearly cut her head off.

Dodging another few swings of it's tails and hands, the Hyūga jumped away, but apparently the beast didn't plan on stopping it's furious series of attacks. Barely avoiding them, Hinata rapidly tried to come up with an idea of stopping... it.

And just when the body of the first guard killed by Jun hit the cold floor, the girl narrowed her eyes, meeting the demon's hateful gaze, recognizing the familiar pattern.

It's eyes... they weren't normal. Of course, Hinata had no idea how they supposed to look normally, but... the eyes of the Kyūbi most certainly weren't the Sharingan eyes, right?

Which could mean only one thing - it was being under Yutaka's control, which made perfect sense – if the Kyūbi sided himself with Konoha during the war, surely it would be able to recognize Sasuke, Naruto's best friend? And the bijū didn't seem like a mindless creature back then anyway... but it did now.

But then... it was going to stop as soon as she put the beast out of the man's control. At least she hoped it would. But how to do this? How to undo this genjutsu...?

She nearly wanted to kill herself for her idiocy now. Just what the hell was wrong with her recently?!

If anyone knew how to dispel the Sharingan genjutsu, wouldn't it be the one who was taught by the strongest Sharingan user alive?

But then again, she never considered that particular piece of information really valuable. After all, Sasuke was supposed to remain the only surviving Uchiha out there. And if he decided to put her under a genjutsu, she would hardly object with his decision – whatever his reason could be in this case, Hinata was sure it would be very justified and important.

He told her something about the ways to undo the control, the girl now remembered that fact as she dodged another attack, nervously noticing that the fifth chakra tail slowly appeared from the creature's back.

She needed to be quick before the full transformation occurred.

Think, Hinata, just think... the seal was out of the option – as far as she remembered, it had to be placed onto the controller's body, not the host's. And she wasn't any good at sealing arts anyway...

What else could she do? There had to be an option...

Destroying the girl's body was one, for instance. But could she make it, considering that she wasn't even able to come close enough to land a decent blow...? If she managed to kill the jinchūriki, the bijū's chakra would be dispersed for a while, and the genjutsu would be automatically canceled.

And if Hinata didn't kill her, she would have to face the completely transformed nine tailed fox, dedicated to kill her and Jun... considering the power she saw when Naruto transformed into it, the Hyūga decided that this certainly wasn't what she wanted right now.

But what to do then...?

She felt the dire chakra burning the left side of her face as she barely managed to dodge another attack, jumping towards the opposite side of the hall and landing onto the ceiling.

If that Yutaka managed to control the Kyūbi, then he was quite powerful. No match for Sasuke, of course, but it was a very delicate situation for her... master? Lover?

She shook her head, trying to collect her thoughts. It certainly wasn't the right time to think about it...

No matter. Sasuke obviously couldn't just bring Yutaka down. Which meant it was going to take some time for him to come back and help them.

Time... that was the problem – they had absolutely no time.

What to do...? Damn it...

Surely waiting for the Kyūbi to perform the complete transformation was out of the question. She didn't remember the way to undo the control over it, either, which meant...

She had to defeat it somehow. And apparently if she had any chance to begin with, there was no choice but to use the strongest move in her arsenal...

There was no other way. Ironically so, the jinchūriki's fate was sealed the moment she received that seal on her body – after all, thanks to Sasuke, Hinata still considered herself a kunoichi of Konoha. And the Kyūbi was Konoha's bijū, no one else's... no. It was Naruto's friend and their savior as well. They needed to remember it.

In any case, it was Hinata's duty to free the beast of her village. She had to do it. Somehow...

"Jun!" She yelled, jumping down and avoiding another strike at the same time. "Be careful, I'm going to use my kekkei genkai now!"

"Understood!" Came the immediate reply, and Hinata weaved a few signs, hugging her shoulders and kneeling, not moving the gaze of her activated Byakugan off the roaring demon.

"Here goes nothing..." She whispered, waiting for another deadly strike to come, and then the Hyūga channeled as much of her chakra to her limbs as she could.

The beast roared in anger, and Jun, who couldn't stand the temptation to see Hinata's mysterious power, gasped in awe, nearly getting hit by one of the few surviving guardians – but it was quite a show, so the man guessed that the risk of distraction did worth it.

At least because it all clicked for him now. This was how she managed to catch him off guard weeks ago, when she lured him to their trap by trying to seduce him – he was sure that she had no weapon with her and that it wasn't a ninjutsu, and he was right.

The huge red chakra arms of the jinchūriki was pierced by a few large bones that were now protruding out of Hinata's shoulders.

The beast snorted, seemingly confused, but the girl didn't give it any chances – another vicious strike followed as a long, sharp bone came out of her palm, piercing the demon's abdomen and making it roar so loud that it seemed like the walls of the tower trembled under it's fury.

With a loud crack, the bones were broken and a strong paw crashed into Hinata's chest, throwing the girl back at the wall, but apparently she wasn't going to simply give up now, which could only amaze Jun even more – another few sharp and thick bones came out of the girl's back, digging into the floor and thus preventing her from being hit by the wall behind her.

"Is that all you got, huh?! And here I though we were going to have fun! Bring it on!" Hinata yelled, but Jun, who had just finished another man, leaving only one guardian to deal with, could see that she was equally as frightened and desperate as cocky she was now, taunting this demonic creature when there was hardly a way to beat it, even with her dreadful kekkei genkai he never ever heard about before.

The sixth tail appeared behind it's back, and the beast's body began covering with it's own skeleton.

This wasn't going to end well...

* * *

Yutaka fell onto the platform just below the Tower's spire, quickly getting back on his legs and watching down to the street, gasping in surprise – apparently he had no idea about the ongoing riot in his village.

"You..." He growled, meeting his opponent's calm and collected gaze. "No matter who you are, I would rather die than let you take my village!" He drew a kunai out of the holster on his hip, taking a stance Sasuke wasn't familiar with – it looked a bit similar to what Karin sometimes used in the past, but it still was quite different.

"Why is that?" Sasuke suddenly asked, surprising Yutaka by the absolute lack of any sign of aggression in his tone – there was nothing but curiosity. "Is your lust for power that strong?"

Yutaka clenched his kunai and charged towards the Uchiha.

"You would never understand...!" To his surprise, just when he was about to cut the throat of his nemesis, some mysterious power suddenly threw him away from the black haired boy, making the man fly a few yards back and fall hard onto the platform, wincing of pain.

"I will try." The man raised his head, slowly getting up and meeting the indifferent gaze of the boy's only visible black eye.

"You scum... the Akatsuki... your so-called leader had abandoned this village just when it needed him the most. But as far as I know... your organization never intended to ensure Amegakure's well-being to begin with, right...?" He now tried to analyze his enemy with his Sharingan before attacking again, but Sasuke knew beforehand that it was futile – he wasn't using any jutsu right now aside from that _Shinra Tensei_. And even if he had to use the other Rinnegan technique he had mastered just a month ago, Yutaka wouldn't be able to see anything with his eyes.  
"And I take it you consider yourself a worthy leader?" Sasuke asked, and his clansman cursed, clenching his teeth.

"I know what you're trying to say. Perhaps I'm far from perfect, but at least I tried to do something. And you... the Akatsuki... you just used the village to achieve your own goals! You are the ones responsible for all this...!" He charged towards Sasuke again, but this time he could feel a significant mass of chakra leave the boy's body, but for some weird reason he couldn't see anything, which was more than strange – his blessed eyes always allowed him to see any chakra...! Then why...?

And then he gasped, feeling as his body suddenly became nearly paralyzed – Yutaka couldn't move a limb, and the man could feel himself being slightly pulled up in the air by something he couldn't see – he was floating there without being able to do literally anything but cursing and talking.

Just who on earth was this boy...? And how powerful he really was, being able to do something like that without moving a finger?

"I will not harm you... no matter what you do. Don't try using genjutsu – it won't work on me. Nothing you can do will." His right eye flashed with red, and Yutaka became speechless as he saw the familiar pattern.

It was the same eye he himself had. The red eye with three tomoe.

"H-how...?" He whispered, unable to move his eyes away from the boy.

"Are you going to listen now?" Sasuke asked, stepping close enough to the man that he could see every feature of his scarred face. "If you don't try to attack me again, I will let you go."

It was a lie, of course – the Uchiha knew that he'd have to let the man go anyway, since the technique he was using now had it's time limit, but why not gamble a bit, especially if it was for the greater good?

Yutaka slowly nodded, and then he felt the grip of the invisible hands let him fall on his knees, breathing heavily.

"Why..." he blurted, trying to catch his breath. "Why do you have this eye...?"

"I was born with it, just like you."

Did... did he say he was born with it...?! Was he trying to tell that...?!

"Are... are we...?"

The Uchiha nodded.

"We are related. But in order to explain it all to you, I need to understand if you know anything about your origins. Tell me... what do you know about your parents?"

The man hesitated for a few seconds before sighing and shrugging.

"Not much. I never got a chance meet my father. Mother told me that he was from some powerful clan... and she herself was an Uzumaki. I don't remember her that well, though – I've been taken from her when I was a kid. Never saw her ever since."

Sasuke's eyes widened. There was no mistake... this man was the son of that Uzumaki woman they met in the Land of Whirlpools a few months ago. Which meant... he probably knew absolutely nothing about his legacy, since the man was raised too far away from Konoha... basically as a slave.

"I see. Then you are the one who I was looking for. Tell me... your mother's name is Uzumaki Otomi, right?"

The man fell onto his back, deactivating his dōjutsu and staring in Sasuke's eyes in complete shock and disbelief.

"How... how did you...?" He mumbled, barely being able to squeeze words.

"I've met her before. She told me the story of your family, and I decided to find you. Your name is Yutaka, right?"

The man slowly nodded, apparently still having a hard time believing what was happening to him.

"Y-yes... but why did you want to look for me?" He quietly asked, not moving his shocked eyes from his... enemy? Relative? He didn't even what to think anymore...

Sasuke suddenly smiled warmly, which looked a bit weird considering the situation they were in.

"Because you're a descendant of my clan. Like I told you before, my name is Uchiha Sasuke. I suppose you never heard about the Uchiha clan, right?"

Yutaka shook his head, still finding it hard to comprehend what was happening to him.

"No... I only heard the name once before. But they said the clan is no more..."

Sasuke smirked.

"Well, they were wrong. There is me. And you, now that I've found you."

The leader of Ame lowered his eyes, peering at the floor under his feet thoughtfully.

"Does it mean that my father is...?"

"Yes. He was an Uchiha, just like you and me."

"Are they... still alive?" It was a pain for Sasuke to hear that humble, smallest sign of hope in his voice, and it was even more painful to break it. But there was no other choice. He couldn't lie to him.  
The boy sighed, slightly shaking his head.

"Unfortunately, no. I witnessed your mother's death just few months ago."

Yutaka brushed his dark-red shaded hair with his fingers, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Did she suffer?" He suddenly asked, and Sasuke shook his head again.

"No. She died peacefully."

Yutaka opened his eyes, meeting Sasuke's sympathetic gaze again.

"How come you're with Akatsuki? Why did you say that you're going to take over?" The older Uchiha became serious again – apparently the initial shock of the revelations that fell onto him was now gone, bringing back the tension of the presence of the intruders – they were still his enemies, Uchiha or not.

Sasuke looked away, glancing at the crowd down on the street – there were quite a few dead people now, and the fight was still ongoing.

"Because you did a very stupid thing. You attacked your clan's homeland, Konohagakure. This led us to nearly catastrophic consequences. I need to stop it all before it's too late."

Yutaka narrowed his eyes, quietly growling:

"Consequences? Such as...?"

The younger Uchiha met his piercing glare again, without any sign of any emotion but sadness in his own eyes.

"Listen... I know that Ame is a rather closed village, and that your people usually don't take part in the major events of the shinobi world. But there was a war just half a year ago. That war nearly destroyed this world . After it ended, the Five Great Countries made an agreement to prevent anything like that in future – no village among these countries is to attack another village, no matter what are the circumstances. They can only defend themselves, nothing else. Surely you noticed that Konoha didn't strike back, no matter what you did to us – and you used it as an opportunity, which makes perfect sense, but it can't last any longer. Konoha is weakened because of you, and we are about to cross the point of taking unacceptable amount of damage. And if it happens, the truce will be broken, and the world will be consumed by another war, which will likely be the end for all of us."

Yutaka suddenly laughed, and Sasuke's heart sank as he heard the signs of complete despair and incredible pain in the man's voice.

"So... is that it? You're just going to destroy Ame from the inside to protect your own village?"

The younger Uchiha quickly shook his head.

"No. I plan on making it a part of our country. This way, the Land of Fire will provide all the necessary resources to reform this village and to help your country, as well as granting the protection you need."

"I'm sorry, then. But you will have to step over my dead body if that's your plan. Clansman or not, but I'd rather die than let you annex my country." Yutaka's voice suddenly became incredibly harsh as he took his kunai again, apparently prepared to fight Sasuke to the end.

The black haired boy frowned.

"Why? Do you want to continue the pointless misery of your people? Don't you think they've suffered enough pain by now...?"

Yutaka laughed again, reactivating his Sharingan.

"Pain...? What can a kid like you possibly know about pain?!"

Sasuke's black eye became bloody red as well.

"I know enough."

"Oh, really? Then tell me... that girl you came here with. I saw how you talked to each other, so tell me now – do you love her?!" He yelled, taking his exotic stance again.

"What does it have to do with anything...?" Sasuke mumbled, confused by the sudden question, and Yutaka laughed maniacally again.

"Oh, it does! Because it's going to be the prime example of the difference between you and me, between your people and mine! All you care about is avoiding pain, while we take it for granted! Pain is what makes us stronger! And this is what's going to happen to the two us! You will be broken, and I will only become stronger!"

"You're not making any sense..." Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously – he certainly didn't expect, nor like this turn of events. Was he... insane? Or quite the opposite...?

Yutaka cocked his head to the left, grinning devilishly.

"Oh, really? I'll make it clear for you, then. You and me are about to lose our beloved ones! Both of them will die!" He laughed again, and Sasuke gasped, quickly channeling his chakra into his eye.

And just as he did so, a horrible anguished cry echoed through the building from somewhere just few levels below the platform they were standing on. It was... Hinata!

"Now tell me, boy... what do you know about pain?!"


	15. The Ties That Bind Us

**Chapter 15. The Ties That Bind Us**

"Now tell me, boy... what do you know about pain?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth, feeling utterly lost for a moment. When he heard Hinata screaming somewhere on the lower floors, his first desire was to teleport down straight away, for such reaction to injures was something far from ordinary for her nowadays.

From what he had learned during their recent training sessions, the girl had acquired very high pain tolerance now that she'd had awakened that kekkei genkai Orochimaru had given her. Since she could now change the shape and size of her bones, it caused her cells to adapt to the new ability, dramatically increasing their regeneration speed – it was now much faster than that of a regular man, basically giving her the ability to heal herself nearly on par with the famous Byakugō seal wielders. Though it made perfect sense considering that whenever she used that ability her muscles, internal organs and skin were heavily damaged. That's why the incredibly fast regeneration was mandatory – so that her body could adjust to the constant changes as fast as possible.  
Back when she'd first awakened the kekkei genkai she told him that the pain was nearly driving her insane whenever she tried to use it. But it was getting better with each further try, and once her brain finally accepted the fact that from now on Hinata could take immense amount of damage without risking her life, the levels of pain her body felt rapidly decreased in order to preserve the healthy state of her psyche. So now the girl usually didn't even notice scratches, cuts, and piercing wounds – after all, they always regenerated shortly.

But like his brother always told him: Every jutsu had a weakness, and this one was no exception. The huge flaw there was that the regeneration took significant amounts of her chakra, and since she'd always had rather small chakra reserves and didn't have it stored in a seal like the said Byakugō users, the girl had to train physically without allowing herself any indulgence in order to increase her capacities, which she did – the Hyūga had nearly doubled them during the last few months. It had also caused quite a notable good effect on her body, but currently it was certainly not the time for Sasuke to focus his thoughts on that part – that scream of hers could only mean that Hinata was now very close to being out of chakra. And apparently the passive regeneration stopped in order to preserve the remaining energy to prevent her from dying due to chakra exhaustion.

In other words, she was likely to get killed any second now.

That's why he had no other choice but to go all out. He really hated it – after all, Sasuke vowed to himself not to harm his possible surviving relatives under any circumstances ... yet still Yutaka, who clearly was controlling the Kyūbi jinchūriki, whom Hinata fought, was leaving him no other options. After all ... to think about it, years ago Obito did tie him up before revealing the truth about Itachi, which probably was a right thing to do, since otherwise he wouldn't have listened back then, of that Sasuke was sure. Therefore, sometimes even violent measures could bring good in the end. And given that Hinata could die now because of his principles, the Uchiha made the only natural decision he could make at the moment – he gave up on said principle.

"Enough with the sideshow."

His Rinnegan flashed as a burst of his chakra ruffled the boy's hair. There was a glimpse of surprise, recognition and shock in Yutaka's eyes before they turned purple, covered with a ripple pattern, and then the man's face became absolutely blank.

At the same time an invisible and intangible copy of Sasuke appeared out of his body, instantly using Amenotejikara to get to Hinata. And to Sasuke's relief, since his eyes were linked with the eyes of the copy through the invisible chakra connection, he could see that it got there right in time to protect the girl from the killing blow, blocking it and making Hinata gasp in surprise.

He smirked. Of course, she couldn't see nor feel it.

Back during the war, only those who possessed the Six Paths senjutsu or Rinnegan could recognize the presence of Madara's Limbo. And certainly a mere Byakugan couldn't perceive it at all ... so she probably didn't even grasp what exactly saved her, since he never told the girl anything about this particular jutsu – after all, he hated to use anything related to copying himself. Like he once told Naruto back at the Valley of the End, he considered relying on clones a symbol of weakness and solitude, both of which he despised. And now he was using the exactly same technique his predecessor had been so fond of – the irony!

Of course, he had a different point of view now after all those months of thinking and reconsidering his philosophy, so it was more of an old habit now, but it was still there nonetheless – that was why he usually preferred to avoid using Limbo if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Not to mention that it was very chakra consuming as well... but, no matter.

Sasuke let out a heavy sigh, feeling his heart racing madly. If he had been just second later, he could've lost her...

 _Undo the control over the Kyūbi,_ he sent the silent order, and the man quickly formed the confrontation seal – Sasuke could feel the flow of chakra that was streaming down through the floors of the building and to the bijū instantly disappear. He smirked in satisfaction – through the eyes of his copy he could see that the Kyūbi stopped – it already reached its eight-tailed form, and was covered in muscles and skin, though there was no fur yet, which made it look a bit weird and probably even more repulsive than its usual appearance. The beast looked angered, but it was just standing there, panting and glaring at Hinata with recognition in its red eyes.

The girl herself, however, looked really bad – the beast had ripped her arms away, and she was standing there on her knees in a puddle of blood, much paler than usual, trembling and breathing heavily – it was clear that she was desperately trying to stay conscious in spite of the multiple deadly injuries.

 _Come downstairs right away. We'll meet there._

Yutaka nodded without any questions – after all, Sasuke's Rinnegan genjutsu was probably the second strongest illusion technique that ever existed, so a mere Sharingan user, even with the Uzumaki genes, couldn't possibly hope to defy it.

Sasuke then used his Rinnegan's power again, this time to swap places with his shadow, appearing before Hinata and staring into the Kyūbi's hateful eyes.

"Uchiha– " The creature growled, instantly recognizing him.

"Hold on." Sasuke turned away – just in time to catch Hinata who was about to fall down onto the cold concrete floor. Gripping her waist with his only arm, he stared into her clouded white eyes.

"Sa– Sasuke ... you've come– " whispered the girl, giving him the weakest of smiles.

"Don't talk. I can see you're nearly out of chakra ... but it can be fixed."

He lightly tapped her forehead with his fingertips before channeling his own chakra into his palm – a small black metal rod appeared on it, and the boy thrust it directly into the tenketsu point on her chest.

"You dumbass ... why didn't you use the seal?" He frowned, looking at the black mark on Hinata's neck.

Jun, who was half-sitting on the floor a few yards away from them, waved his hand at Sasuke.

"Hey, kami-sama ... I'm glad that you're so caring about the well-being of your followers. Just wanted to tell you that I'm alive, though not that well. Already started to think you were going to let us die here."

Sasuke ignored the man, seeing as he was relatively fine despite the open fracture of his leg. The teen knelt down to Hinata who gave him a weak smile again, whispering,"You ... told me ... not to ..."

"Stupid."

He channeled his chakra through the rod – since there already was a portion of his energy in her system, it was rather easy to connect with it and to start filling her body with his own chakra – the results of that became pretty evident shortly as the girl's arms started to rapidly re-grow, and Hinata herself, despite coughing up blood and panting heavily, became much less pale than she was prior to his arrival.

"That should be enough …," he finally concluded after a minute, turning his head to the beast that, for some reason, had been unusually patient and silent, yet still staring at him with unveiled hatred in the fearful eyes. As far as Sasuke knew the Kyūbi was no fool – the creature probably realized that attacking him would be a waste of energy, given that he was now in full control of his power, unlike that time half a year ago at the Valley of the End – and even that time such an attempt had turned out to be futile.

"Your kind never changes, Uchiha," the fox growled again, still not moving an inch.

"You're wrong," uttered Sasuke. Now, after all those months of thinking, he realized that the beast was an intelligent creature that actually had feelings and thoughts of its own. It couldn't be dealt with like a tool.

"Oh, really? I find it hard to believe. This piece of trash is of your clan, and he used his abilities to control me, just like you and your predecessors did in the past."

"That's not happening again."

Sasuke's voice was steady and rigid, so the fox narrowed its eyes, frowning – it was looking pretty weird considering its incomplete form, but the Uchiha didn't really care. He had finally made a decision concerning the demon, and this time he wouldn't change his mind no matter what.

"I know that Naruto trusts you–" The beast finally rumbled, "...and, considering that you were the one to free me now, I suppose I could trust his judge and accept the fact that you really have changed. But you should be able to understand – those who have access to a great power will always crave it, no matter what they do. If you succeed at reviving your clan now – someday, an Uchiha will come up with the idea of controlling me. Perhaps it will even be your next–"

"I understand."

The beast certainly didn't like being interrupted like that, yet still the fox stopped talking, waiting for Sasuke to continue and trying to stay patient. The teen himself suddenly looked a bit troubled, which nobody missed – though he'd had months to come to this certain decision, he still had some doubts. What if he was wrong, after all? What if Naruto's idea of peace failed? Would it eventually come back to the idea of revolution...?

No. Even if it was bound to happen after all, he could make it even without the bijū. And if the Kyūbi tried to stop him, then he would be free to protect himself by any means necessary.

"I can't guarantee anything for the time when I am no more," he finally said. "But until then – while I'm the head of the Uchiha clan – I promise you that I will personally execute whoever is going to try to abuse his power over you again. Unless you attack any of us on your own, of course. "

The Kyūbi smirked bitterly, cocking its head.

"Why so generous all of sudden?"

That was a one million ryō question. But Sasuke could answer it – after all, he'd had plenty of time to find the answer prior to that night.

"There are several reasons. First of all, after our last meeting, I realized that you beasts are more than just nearly endless sources of chakra. Thanks to Naruto, of course ... yet still, I now understand that you are a person, just like me, though of a different kind. And, trust me or not, I don't fancy slavery in any form. Besides ... I'm a part of Konoha now, and so are you. So it's one of my duties - to protect you no matter what."

The beast laughed, and Sasuke could hear Hinata gasp at the scary, loud sound.

"A bold claim. What are you going to do now, then? I'm still enslaved, as you can see."

The Uchiha blinked – he didn't think that part through. Apparently the bijū was referring to its host...

"I–"

He stopped, not knowing what to say.

The Kyūbi smirked.

"I knew it. You humans are always the same. Even those hypocrites who try to befriend us, you still don't consider us equals – you won't kill one of your kind to free me, will you? Especially since this girl is the wife of your clansman ..."

Now that was quite a dilemma. Would Yutaka ever forgive him for killing his beloved one? Perhaps he could do it while the man was...  
Sasuke cursed, gazing at the entrance of the hall. No, that idea wouldn't work now – the other Uchiha had just appeared, though still under his genjutsu, but Sasuke knew that the man could see and hear them clearly even without being able to control his body.

"Right. Your words are as empty as your soul, Uchiha. Come now, put some seal on her so I can return to my prison. I don't want to face you anymore, filth."

The raven haired boy scowled – it was the first time in awhile that he didn't know what to do. Perhaps now he could talk to Yutaka? Maybe he would understand ...? After all, killing the man absolutely was not an option in any possible case, just like letting him go. Sure, he could hold him under the genjutsu forever, but ... was that the way he wanted to run his family? Certainly not.

"Stand still. I'm going to resolve this, in one way or another," mumbled the Uchiha, partly undoing his genjutsu in a way that the man could think and talk on his own free will, yet still had no ability to move.

And, just as he did so, Yutaka gave him a hateful glare.

"You're incredibly powerful, I will give you that. And to think that you, of all people, have the god's eye ... you truly are the chosen one. I can now see how naive I was, thinking that I could defeat you ..."

"Why did you seal the Kyūbi inside your own wife? Weren't you aware of how dangerous that is?" asked Sasuke, looking the man in the eyes without any sign of conflict in him anymore. He couldn't allow himself to look weak now, no matter what.

"Oh? So now you are interested, huh?" the man chuckled sadly. "It's fairly simple. Yes, I am aware of the demon's capabilities. She was dying, and that was the only way to save her life."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, thinking quickly. Now it made more sense, though not entirely so ...

"Apparently you really don't understand what power you are dealing with." Sasuke sighed, helping Hinata get up - she was still recovering and silently listening to the fateful conversation. He took the torn Akatsuki coat off her shaking body and draped his own over her shoulders – it was a few sizes bigger, so the girl looked a bit ridiculous wearing it, but none of them really cared.

Yutaka simply shrugged, still unable to move his arms and legs.

"I knew that this beast was capable of healing its host. I also knew that we needed a weapon to protect ourselves. That was the best decision I could make at the time."

Sasuke gritted his teeth again. Sure, that was justified, but it didn't make the situation any better ...

"But can't you see that you were wrong? Sure, you prolonged her life, but such a way of living is pure suffering. Her body is too weak to hold the beast inside, and its chakra is much more potent than hers. That's why you weren't able to maintain the seal, no matter how hard you tried.

Yutaka shrugged again, lowering his eyes in defeat.

"I suppose you're right ... but what else could I do? I love her. Just as much as I love my village. I had to save her, no matter what it cost me. But I'm sure you understand me, too."

The man glanced at Hinata who now held her breath, gazing at Sasuke hesitantly.

The Uchiha could feel his resolve break at once. He still couldn't say what he felt towards the girl that apparently loved him deeply, but for some reason he now felt the strange empathy towards his clansman. If Hinata was about to die, how far would he go to save her ...?

But he already knew the answer, even though it was kind of frightening to him. And this situation still needed to be dealt with, so instead of giving the direct reply though, he sighed, "I suppose I do, in a way. But I think I'd rather let the woman I love rest in peace than force her to suffer like this. Can't you see it? Every minute of her existence that was artificially prolonged by you is full of pain she can barely withstand. She is probably nearly insane by now because of it. Did you even talk to her? At least once since the moment you sealed the bijū in her?"

For the first time during their entire conversation, Yutaka looked really conflicted and insecure. After a moment of thinking, he uttered, lowering his eyes, "No ... I don't think so."

Sasuke let out a quiet sigh of relief. That was the start.

"Look, I can see that you love her. It runs in our blood – an Uchiha's love is hard to get, but it's incredibly strong once it's acquired. I myself went through hell because of this feeling ..."

He didn't see it, but Hinata gave him a troubled, empathic look, realizing that he was talking about his parents and his brother Itachi. Jun, too, remained surprisingly silent, gazing at him thoughtfully. "But we have to get over it if we want to survive. And right now I need you. Not only because I consider you family, but also because our bloodline will die if we do not unite to protect ourselves."

"Yeah ... and to do so, you need to kill Kimiko ...?" Yutaka asked, giving him another hateful glare.

Never in his life had Sasuke felt so torn before. But at the same time he really had no choice – he had to free the beast. Furthermore, he truly considered the woman's artificial existence an abomination – she deserved her peace in the afterlife. It had to be stopped.

"Yes. I do. Not only because I won't let anyone enslave this particular beast again, but also because I think you're wrong. I understand your feelings, I truly do, but you have to accept the inevitable. Even if by some miracle you manage to maintain that seal for months, for years, it's not the life you wanted her to live, is it? After all, didn't you tell me just few minutes before that pain only makes you stronger? Then you need to become stronger by overcoming it."

The man closed his eyes, sighing heavily in defeat.

"Perhaps you are right. It was my weakness that led me to doing this to her ... I was far too afraid to lose her, and I don't want to be weak. I can't afford it. I don't really know why, but I can see it in your eyes ... that you're telling the truth. That you understand me. That's why ... I ..." Tears streamed down his face which made Sasuke's heart clench for a second – but then he felt Hinata's fingers gripping his own hand, which made him suddenly feel the power to withstand it.

"I will help you. I understand you want to join Amegakure with the Fire Country, and seeing as your intentions are pure – fine, I accept it. You want to save our clan – I respect this wish as well. But ... I want you to make a promise. No ... I want you to make a vow." His Sharingan eyes finally met Sasuke's, and the teen could see the incredible pain overwhelming his new-found clansman. "As the leader of Akatsuki and of our clan, you must protect both. Can you guarantee that such tragedy won't ever happen again? Can you promise me that while you are alive, you will do everything in your power to ensure that none of our possible descendants will suffer this pain? That unlike us, they won't have to be strong above everything else?"

Sasuke could feel the betraying tear flow down his face, and he could only be grateful to the girl that was now standing next to him, giving him the light that helped him to stand still in the face of the very thing that had been stalking him in his nightmares for many, many years now – and even though he'd always dealt with it on his own, despite certainly being strong enough to deal with Yutaka's pain of losing the closest person he had that was so familiar to him, the teen still felt the warmth of her assuring clench on his hand reach the depths of his heart, and it made him feel like the ice he had chained his heart with years ago was finally melting now. Very slowly, but that was the start...

"Yes. I give you this vow." He stepped towards Yutaka, canceling the genjutsu and letting the man go. Shaking his hand, Sasuke saw the man nodding.

"Go ahead now. Just ... please, make it as fast as possible. I don't want her to suffer anymore."

Sasuke didn't know what to say. To kill the girl would mean the bijū chakra was to disperse for many years, reforming much, much later. He needed to actually extract the beast from her body, just like Akatsuki did it with the other beasts in the past ... and he could do it with his left eye's prowess. But it certainly wouldn't be instant, nor painless ...

"I'll try. But I'm afraid it might not be as quick." Yutaka gave him a weak nod again, and Sasuke turned towards the beast that was patiently waiting for the ending of their conversation, gazing at him in utter shock. Apparently he surprised the Kyūbi to say the least.

"I'm going to pull you out of her now. Any advice to not screw it up?" The teen barked, making the Kyūbi give him an incredulous glare before slowly replying,"Just use the Preta Path of your Rinnegan, brat. I've nearly broken the seal anyway. If you take more of my chakra out, it will break. She will die the instant you do it, though."

"Fair enough."

Sasuke came close to the immense creature, touching it's chest with his palm and starting to drain the chakra as fast as he could, not allowing it to enter his own system though.

It didn't take much time, just like the beast anticipated – in just a minute, the massive furry creature was standing there above the corpse of a beautiful woman that was once the beloved wife of Yutaka Uchiha.

Sasuke looked back to check the man and nearly gasped – his eyes changed its usual three tomoe pattern, making them look more like three diamonds around the pupil, connected by a broad circle. Apparently the man awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, which was to be expected now that Sasuke thought about it.

"That's ... surprising …," the beast rambled, looking at Sasuke with caution and confusion in its red eyes.

"Is it?" He could only say that much, glancing at the Kyūbi who now looked like a lost puppy all of a sudden.

"Yes ... I never thought you could change this much ... Indra." Sasuke could see Hinata's eyes widen as she heard the name. He still had to question her about the things she was not supposed to know later...

"Neither did I. But it happened nonetheless. You are free now." He turned away, looking at Yutaka who was now sobbing, sitting on the floor and hugging his wife's dead body.

The Kyūbi hesitated for a few seconds.

"I know ... and you are the one to thank for it. Perhaps the old man wasn't all wrong about you, after all ..." Sasuke could feel the beast stride forward, lowering its head and quietly uttering,"Your predecessors used to take this privilege by force ... I think it will only be fair if I give you that, now that you've shown me your dignity. After all, maybe Naruto wasn't wrong about you, either ..." Sasuke looked up to meet the suddenly warm, though a bit awkward gaze of the beast. "From now on, I allow you and only you, Uchiha Sasuke, to summon me for your assistance in critical situations. Don't abuse it for the stuff you can take care of yourself, though – I'm aware of your capabilities, brat, so it's gonna be a very rare occasion, but in case you ever need my help–"

Sasuke gave the beast a small smirk.

"Yeah. I know. Thank you ... Kurama."

The bijū snorted, frowning and turning away.

"That bastard Naruto ... I hoped he would respect me enough to not reveal my name to another brat."

Sasuke smirked.

"Fine ... I'll be calling you Kyūbi anyway. Wouldn't want to ruin the intimacy between the two of you." The beast began to growl, but then Sasuke raised his hand in a conciliatory gesture. "Just kidding. Thank you. And sorry again for this mess."

"No worries, no worries. My leg will wait another few hours, 's okay."

Jun finally moaned, not able to hold the irritation and pain anymore, though apparently he realized the importance of what was going on.

Hearing this, Sasuke met Hinata's eyes, and the girl gave him another warm, understanding smile.

"Go. He needs you now. I'll heal Jun meanwhile – you gave me more than enough chakra." She pulled the black rod out of her flesh and dropped it aside – the wound began to heal the instant she did so.

Nodding hesitantly, Sasuke stepped towards Yutaka who was still sitting on the floor, hugging the dead body of his wife. There was the hardest part ...

He came close to the man, lightly putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Can we talk?" he asked as softly as he could, suddenly feeling weird – the man was a good decade older than him, yet still he felt what he imagined to be what Itachi always felt when he was trying to comfort him back during their childhood – as if Yutaka was his younger brother.

"Yeah ... I suppose …," Yutaka mumbled, caressing the woman's cheek for the last time before finally letting her go. He got up, meeting Sasuke's only visible sorrowful eye – the teen's Sharingan was deactivated now, and the Rinnegan got covered by his hair again.  
Yutaka's eyes, though ... without a doubt, it was his Mangekyō Sharingan.

"Can you bury her? The way it's supposed to be done in our clan." Sasuke gasped in surprise – he certainly didn't see that coming. As far as he knew, the burial tradition in Amegakure was completely different from that in Konoha ... but, seeing as the man apparently wanted to get accustomed to his new-found family, and considering that his wife technically was a part of their clan, too ... he didn't see any reason to refuse.

"Sure." He turned to Kimiko's body, moving a strand of his hair away – a drop of blood came from his left eye, streaming down his face. He cleared his throat before initiating the ritual, feeling a bit nervous – after all, he never did it before. That's why he decided to go for the short version, the one that usually was performed in a middle of battlefield, when there was no time for a proper burial.

"May the Will of Fire stay strong in you in the afterlife. We are proud that you were a glorious member of our clan. Rest in peace, Kimiko Uchiha." The black flames consumed the corpse, incinerating in within just a few seconds.

Silence fell upon the hall – each of those who were present were consumed by their own thoughts and emotions, and even the Kyūbi showed the respect by quietly lying down on the floor, not making any noises.

"My eyes ..." Yutaka finally mumbled quietly, closing the eyelids and rubbing his face. "They hurt ... do you know what's wrong with them?"

"Yes, I do. I'll explain it later, but you'll have to endure it for now anyway. Listen ... I want to do something much more important ..." The Uchiha clan's head put his only hand into the pocket of his pants and took something small and shiny out of it, showing it to the man.

Yutaka's eyes widened.

"It's ... this is ...!"

"Yes." Sasuke smiled, putting the silver ring with the crimson red signet in the man's hand. "It once belonged to my older brother, Itachi Uchiha ... back when he was an Akatsuki member. Since you are the only relative I have now, it makes sense if you wear it ... since you're going to be a member too, obviously."

"Me ...?" he gasped, staring at the ring in complete shock.

"Yeah. Or perhaps you'd like to–"

"No! Of course, I wanna stay! What else could I possibly do now, after everything ..." He shook his head, clenching Itachi's ring in his hand tightly. "Do you even have a plan now? I mean, you obviously do, seeing as you came prepared, but ... what exactly do you need to recreate Akatsuki for? It's not like you can't settle everything on your own, given your power and everything?" He now looked confused and a bit suspicious, though for some reason, it wasn't directed at Sasuke, the teen just felt it – the man trusted him now, which was a bit strange when he thought about it, but not that he complained. Apparently Yutaka just really wanted to get involved into the upcoming events ... perhaps to forget about his wife's demise?

"As I tried to explain it to you upstairs ... we can't let anyone think that we're still the ninjas of Konoha – that's because of the truce between the Five Great Countries. The small ones are allowed to do whatever they want, but our hands our bound. And Konoha is much weakened after the last war, thanks to Pain – the Akatsuki member you guys called god." Yutaka's eyes narrowed offendedly, but then his features relaxed as he stared down at the floor.

"You knew him, didn't you? Was he weaker than you? And not a real god, I suppose?"

Sasuke shrugged indifferently.

"I knew him and saw him personally, and at the time, he probably was stronger than me. A very powerful and smart one, but still only a human ... just like me," he added, reminding of it more to himself than to anyone else. "No, he was merely a pawn. The true leader of Akatsuki was the masked man, Obito. Though I don't think you ever heard of his existence," said the teen, though carefully not mentioning the fact that Obito was an Uchiha too - he didn't need to know it, at least for now.

Yutaka smirked.

"Oh, actually, I did. He was the one who killed the god's ... no ... Pain's accomplice, the one that used to be called the god's angel in this village. Her name was Konan, as far as I'm aware. The blue haired woman, did you ...?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"No, I didn't know her personally, either. I was under Obito's tutelage at the time, and hardly had any contacts with the other members."

"I see ... well, anyway. He killed her, and defiled Pain's tomb. That's what everyone here knows, at least. He's really hated in this country ever since. What happened to him, by the way?"

The teen sighed patiently. Apparently Yutaka really was quite talkative, quite unlike himself.

"He's dead. Regardless ... Konoha is on the verge of destruction right now, and so is the entire world. If a country decides to launch a large scale attack against us we're probably doomed. Even I alone won't be able to protect everyone, while the other countries are able to defend themselves." That was a lie – he was certain that he could protect everyone with ease, but he couldn't reveal everything to Yutaka just yet. "That's why we need another stronghold to defend our borders while the village is recovering. But since we can't do anything but defend ourselves, the Hokage decided to pull this top secret operation ... I'm going to be completely sincere with you, Yutaka."

He lowered his voice, meeting the man's conflicted yet curious gaze. "There is only one shinobi in the world who is as powerful as I am. And he's on our side, too. Together, we could probably enslave every human being on this planet for good, but fortunately we just want to maintain peace. For everyone. That's why I've been assigned to this mission. From the shadows, with the power I possess, we can make it. But I won't be able to do everything on my own. If somebody out of this village uncovers my identity, everything is doomed. The entire world will strike Konoha down, and me, along with _him_ , will have to kill everyone who opposes our country. I need you and the others to become my hands. To act while I lead you from the shadows. Do you get it?"

After a few seconds of hesitant comprehending, Yutaka finally nodded.

"I guess I do ... well, more-less. At least what you're saying makes sense. If I'd known what happened to your village, I wouldn't launch those attacks ... we were sure that Konoha was as strong as ever, and some robbery wouldn't hurt it."

Sasuke smirked.

"Well, now you know the truth. And I entrust you the position of the public leader of both this organization and this village. The vicar of god, if you please – that's what you're going to be to everyone in the Rain Country. Everyone in Akatsuki will be aware of my true identity, though. And the citizens of the village ... well, I've prepared quite a show for them."

"That's fine by me, but this revolution ... weren't you the one who was behind all this?" Yutaka asked, looking at him with slight confusion in the eyes.

"I was ... but that was before I found out that it was you who was the current leader of this village, not some worthless moron. So I had to change the initial plan."

Yutaka rolled his eyes, snorting.

"I guess my bloodline makes me a more valuable moron ..."

The younger Uchiha smirked again, lightly punching the man's shoulder.

"It sure does. And I'll personally give you a proper training. By the time we're done, you'll know everything about our clan, and you will also master a few really powerful techniques. So don't worry about it for now."

The older man suddenly frowned. His Sharingan deactivated, and it was a good sign – apparently the warmth and kindness Sasuke showed to his family member pretty much stabilized his emotional state.

"You know, perhaps I'm not the only survivor ..."

Sasuke could feel his heart skip a beat, and his eyes widened as he heard Yutaka. Hinata, who was already done with healing Jun, stiffened as she heard it, looking at them attentively. As she did so, Jun himself gave up on trying to initiate a conversation with her, seeing as the girl wasn't any interested at the moment, and directed his attention at them as well.

"I'm not sure, mind you ... but I think I remember something ... if our clan had been wiped out years ago, and my father somehow survived it ... he was an outcast, right?"

The teen nodded impatiently. "If this is the case, than I might know the approximate location of another outcast ... if he's still alive after good fifteen years, of course."

"How come?" Sasuke snapped quickly, too aroused by the unexpected news.

"It's my mom's ... she told me when we both were imprisoned ... told me that there could be a hope for us. She always said it to me while she tried to make me fall asleep in those god damned freaking cold, damp cells in Kiri ... it was like a futile prayer of some sort, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't insane. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about ..."

"What? What did she say?!" the Uchiha blurted out. His heart was racing now at the possibility of finding another member of his clan ... was it even possible to be so lucky?

Yutaka smiled, and for the first time Sasuke could see a real smile in his face.

"I can see that you truly care about our family ... I respect that a lot. But I really doubt it can be any helpful. She just told me that my uncle, dad's brother, was a nukenin who ran away from Konoha after being accused of a murder he didn't commit. Apparently he was hiding somewhere in Kirigakure, but that's nearly all I know. Or no ... not quite. I also remember his name, and the fact that he looked quite like dad, though he was a bit younger. Actually, it makes sense now that I think about it ... they probably didn't like the fact that father's sibling became a nukenin, so I bet they didn't exactly welcome dad in the clan after that. Could be another reason for him to leave–"

"What was his name, then?"

"Keisuke. Though he probably took on an alias. I'm sure he wasn't stupid enough to use his real name in Kiri anyway. He might not be alive, but if he had any descendants ..." He spread his hands, shrugging apologetically.

Sasuke sighed in defeat, frowning. Basically, it was another search for a needle in a stack of hay. But could he reject such a chance ...? Probably, considering that he was lucky enough to literally stumble upon Yutaka. But still ... that wouldn't be his way of doing things.

"Are you going to look for him?" asked Yutaka as if to confirm his thoughts.

Sasuke hesitated a bit before nodding.

"Yeah ... of course I am. But first things come first. We need to complete this mission and ensure the well-being of our two villages before everything else ..."

"What the actual fuck?" Jun suddenly, jumping up and gripping his kunai as he stared at the hall's entrance.

Sasuke quickly turned to look at the man, confused by the sudden emotional expression, and ... he found Jun being dead scared and Hinata being ... happy and smiling? And both of them were looking in the same direction ... just behind his back.

Turning around, Sasuke raised his eyebrow as he saw the four familiar persons enter the hall and look around.

"What are you guys doing here ...?" asked the youngest Uchiha - he had to admit that this time they managed to surprise them, and in a good way.

"My, my, Sasuke-kun ... I thought you'd be glad to meet again, especially considering the dire atmosphere here. You should have some fun, at least once in awhile."

"He has Hinata for that purpose …," Jun mumbled, making the girl blush and smack his nape while Orochimaru smirked at the comment.

"'Sup, Sasuke, Hinata," drawled Suigetsu lazily, though still looking happy to see his old friend.

"Greetings, everyone." Jūgo looked polite and indifferent as usual.

Karin looked a bit confused and suspicious as she heard Jun's last line, so instead of giving a late greeting, she suddenly gasped, storming towards the Hyūga – the girl's body was covered with gore and she still didn't look that well.

"Oh my god, what happened to you? Are you hurt? I can heal you if ..."

Hinata quickly shook her head, interrupting the chattering girl and giving her an assuring smile.

"I'm fine, thanks to Orochimaru." She deliberately didn't add any honorific to the sannin's name, though she wanted to – but Sasuke had always told her not to use them at all, implying that she was now powerful and independent enough not to admit anyone's superiority.

Said sannin's eyes widened in surprise.

"O-oh ... I suppose you've finally awakened the kekkei genkai, then?" he asked. To confirm his assumption, Hinata channeled some chakra into her hand – a long, thin bone grew out of the girl's palm and she took it like a kunai. Karin and Suigetsu gasped simultaneously at her performance while Jūgo's eyes narrowed – come to think of it, Sasuke could imagine what the man felt now, seeing this, considering his relationship with Kimimaro in the past.

"Splendid. Will you let me make a few tests later then? It can be beneficial to both of us …," Orochimaru asked hopefully – apparently he was very happy to see that his experiment finally worked out in the end.

"Of course." Hinata smiled, knowing that she most likely could take the sannin on her own now anyway. He was no threat to her.

"How did you get here? I don't think I've sent you a message asking to come just yet ..." Sasuke frowned, and Orochimaru turned to his former student, smirking complacently.

"Hokage-sama summoned us and ordered to come to your assistance. But I can see you're doing quite well on your own ... aren't you?"

The Uchiha sighed, closing his eyes tiredly.

"I was going to ask you to join us anyway, just didn't think you'd come so fast. And since when were your allegiances to Konoha?" he asked, though the teen already could imagine since when ... more-less. That Kakashi ... who could've known that he would turn out to be so good at plotting and strategic planning?

"Hokage-sama wants to build an alliance with Otogakure. And, since we already have some sort of alliance with you, Sasuke-kun, I've decided to give it a try. I'm an old man, after all ... and visiting Konoha again made me feel nostalgic. I don't fancy the feud anymore."

It was just as he expected, then. Though it was obvious that sentiments were the last thing his former sensei cared about – Orochimaru intended to get very precise benefits out of this agreement, it was clearly readable on his face. But it was only good – this way Kakashi had spared him some time of boring waiting and doing nothing for few more weeks.

"Fair enough. I take it the rest of you agree to join Akatsuki, too?"

"We do!" Karin and Suigetsu replied simultaneously, shooting each other hateful glances, and the orange haired man just nodded, not saying anything.

"That makes the six of us then, right? Or no ... who are these two, by the way?" Orochimaru asked curiously, first looking at Yutaka, who gazed at them with open interest and respect, apparently he knew who Orochimaru was, and then at Jun, who clearly recognized Orochimaru as well and now stared at Sasuke as if finally realizing that the Uchiha was a completely mad man. The sannin's reputation truly preceded him everywhere ...

"This is Yutaka Uchiha. And that guy's name is Jun. Both of them are the strongest shinobi of this village, and they are now members of Akatsuki, too," Sasuke replied calmly, putting his hand on Yutaka's shoulder reassuringly.

"An Uchiha ...? You sure are dedicated when it comes to reaching your goals, Sasuke-kun ..."

"Nice to meet you!" Karin smiled, waving to the two foreign men cheerfully.

"Yeah, hey guys," mumbled Suigetsu with a bored expression, as always.

"Hello," added Jūgo impassively.

"For a bunch of international criminals, you're surprisingly friendly …," muttered Jun, though visibly relaxing at long last.

"You're about to become an international criminal too. So we're in the same boat, don't you think?" Orochimaru smiled devilishly, making Jun smirk.

After all, he had a point.

"It's eight of us, then. We still lack two members, right? I suppose you do have a plan, don't you?" asked Orochimaru, suddenly turning to face the bijū who still lay there on the floor of the hall, waiting for Sasuke to teleport it ... no, _him_ away, and just gazed at the newcomers through his half-closed eyelids indifferently, as if he was too bored and about to take a nap.

"And even the Kyūbi ... long time no see. I take it Naruto-kun finally found the end of your tether and got himself killed, Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru chuckled, and, seeing as Sasuke ignored the man's usual dire sense of humor, he stepped towards the beast, peering at Kurama with curiosity.

"This one is the other half ... it's a long story, but Naruto is alive and well."

"More than you guys think!" They all flinched, turning to the hall's entrance once again, only to see the foreign woman in her twenties, wearing an Akatsuki coat as well. Her hair was long, wavy and blond, and the eyes were light green.

"I remember that voice!" Hinata suddenly gasped, taking a battle stance. "Haven't I killed you before? There, on the roof!"

The woman smirked.

"Didn't take ... Hinata-chan."

The Hyūga frowned, activating her Byakugan. But she couldn't see anything unusual in her chakra network ...

"Just who the hell are you ...?"

And then, to her surprise, Sasuke smirked, half-turning away.

"What took you so long, you idiot?"

The woman smiled even more widely, though it seemed hardly possible and looked ridiculous given her beautiful and elegant features.

"I got lost on the road of life."


	16. Completing The Circle

**Chapter 16. Completing The Circle**

The confusion caused by the woman's sudden appearance quickly turned into a collective laughter, and Hinata totally didn't understand what everyone around her found so funny. Even Sasuke who usually preferred to not show any emotions was smirking now, gazing at the blonde with apparent relief and something else that was difficult for Hinata to grasp.  
Did he know her? Was she someone from his past he never had mentioned to her?  
It was a very rare occasion to see Sasuke that happy – even though the others probably didn't notice it, there clearly was some unique glimpse in the Uchiha's eyes as he gazed upon the woman with a … smile?

Hinata frowned. Sasuke didn't smile often to say the least – a smirk was his usual way to show his satisfaction, or a sneer at best, but not a genuine _smile_. On top of that, it seemed like Orochimaru recognized the newcomer as well, seeing how the sannin had giggled at her last line. All that made Hinata conclude that the woman probably was someone from the Sound bunch.

The Hyūga sighed, lowering her hands. Apparently she'd made a fool out of herself in front of everyone, just like she always used to do in the past … but this time was different, wasn't it? After all, they've just won a very important battle, and she had managed to execute her part of it just fine. Well … perhaps not as good as she would prefer, but still …

She blushed, lowering her head in silent defeat. Now that she thought about it, to say that she did great would be a huge exaggeration. Actually, she nearly failed Sasuke. If only he didn't show up just in time...

Once again he had to go over himself and do something that was very unpleasant to him in order to save her – Hinata was more than aware that he was very much against the idea of using force against his possible surviving relatives. Yet he did it – because she was about to die. It was only natural to assume that he was angry with her now, and seeing this beautiful woman who he obviously had some history with...

Hinata quickly shook her head, trying to collect herself and fighting the urge to sniffle. What on earth was wrong with her? Why the way Sasuke was looking at this woman irritated her so much?

Was she … jealous?

Hinata blushed at the realization, but, to her slight relief, apparently nobody really noticed her embarrassing reaction. Sasuke slowly walked toward the mysterious blonde, carefully eying her up and down before finally saying, "Apparently you didn't waste these five months for nothing … not bad. If you didn't behave like a retard as usual, it would probably take me a while to become suspicious of you. The chakra cover up is nicely done, too."

The woman scratched her nape, smiling widely at him, and the gesture looked pretty awkward given her refined appearance. It just didn't fit her at all, but at the same time, it seemed very familiar.  
Hinata frowned. Just was going on there…?

"Oh, but that's whatcha like me for, isn't it?" she gave him a sheepish smile which made Sasuke snort and roll his eyes before turning away and stepping towards the main entrance of the hall. "Orochimaru … Yutaka. I'll be needing your assistance upstairs. We must calm the citizens down now that it's all over."

The sannin smirked, moving to follow his former student.

"Hm-m … are you preparing a show for everyone, Sasuke-kun? I'm looking forward to it," he said as Yutaka joined them without a question – apparently the man still was deep in his thoughts concerning everything that had happened that night, but it was clear that he already had developed some kind of loyalty to the head of his clan just enough to trust him without second guessing his decisions.

"Yeah, sort of," Sasuke turned his head to look at the huge beast who now looked bored, nearly napping in the middle of the hall, but still, for some reason. gazing at the blonde through the half-closed eyelids. "Kyūbi, you'll have to wait a bit more. As for the others," he turned to face the rest of them, "You guys are free to repose for now. Yutaka, these were your headquarters all along, is it correct?"

"Yes," the man answered immediately, as if he saw the question coming.

"Then I suppose there are some living rooms around. Can we settle ourselves here in the Tower for now?"

The older Uchiha narrowed his eyes, as if trying to estimate something in his head, and then he turned to quickly count everyone before giving Sasuke an affirmative nod, "Yes, I think so, if some of you don't mind sharing rooms, at least for a while. I don't think there are enough of the ones that are comfortable enough. But that can be arranged if needed. After all, we control this village now."

Sasuke smirked, and Hinata already knew what he was about to say – the Uchiha never was the one to crave comfort and facilities.

"We are ninja. We can endure," he then turned to face his student, and Hinata finally was able to met his impassive eyes – his hair was pretty tousled after the fight, so everyone could see his usually covered Rinnegan. "Hinata, I suggest you go and wash yourself, and then have some rest. After all, you took more damage than anyone else … you have a new set of uniform, don't you?" it was sealed along with the other stuff she kept with her as they traveled around the war, so she nodded distantly, still trying to see through his face to figure out what he was truly thinking about her performance and what was there between him and the blonde woman.

But then Sasuke turned away again, and just when Hinata lowered her eyes in defeat again, he did something that instantly turned the Hyūga's world upside down, rendering her absolutely speechless and shocked.

"Fine … dobe," Hinata gasped, quickly raising her eyes to look at Sasuke again, as if he suddenly went insane, making no sense at all. But … he was looking directly at … the blonde? What …? "I believe the two of you need to share a talk. Take your time, just make sure she goes to rest afterwards. It was a rough night, especially for her. I'll catch up with you later, we need to discuss something as well."

"Yeah, yeah, sure … no worries, teme!" the woman replied cheerfully, turning towards Hinata and stepping closer to her.

The former Hyūga heiress couldn't believe what was happening. This was fallacious, this couldn't be real … it just had to be some kind of a twisted nightmare, without a doubt. She probably was dead, or near dead, or in the purgatory, for otherwise it didn't make any sense at all ...

But at the same time, it seemed too real. The tall woman came close to her, giving the girl the now so familiar, cheerful smile that had been stalking the Hyūga in her dreams for so many years.

"Let's go, Hinata-chan … or else Sasuke will kick my ass really hard, y'know … besides, you wouldn't wanna miss the show, would ya?" she sneered and winked at her before gripping Hinata's hand firmly and pulling the girl towards the other corridor that led out of the hall.

She gave Sasuke the last perplexed gaze as their eyes met one more time before she stepped into the dark passage, and Hinata could hear his voice in her head clearly.

 _This is your final challenge. After you pass it, I won't be your master anymore. You mast face your past on your own. Go. I believe in you._

And then the relatively weak genjutsu he had casted upon with his left eye dispelled the very same second the darkness of the hallway consumed her and the blonde.

The Hyūga blindly followed the woman … or rather the man in disguise, not asking any questions, too shocked to say anything. She totally didn't see that coming, especially considering how much had already happened that night, but she also didn't want to stay in denial – never again. Sasuke had acknowledged this person. It was Naruto … no matter what he was up to, it was him nonetheless, that was already settled. It was clear now that she thought about it, and there was no other choice but to deal with the situation accordingly.

But then again … what was she going to say to him? She ran away from the village right after he had broken her heart … had crushed her dreams. All this time, she believed that he was one of those who had obliterated her past self … but on the other hand, it wasn't that she could complain about it now, seeing how everything turned to be in the end … and on top of that …

The more she thought about what happened, what he had done to her, the more she realized that it wasn't nearly as dramatic as it had felt back then. At least it was nothing compared with her clan's horrid betrayal. And, sure, Naruto was pulling her somewhere now, and she was following him again – that same Naruto Uzumaki she once admired so much ... but something was different now. Her hand was being held by his just like it was back then, after Neji's death, and even though this time the circumstances were completely different … the feeling was familiar to her. His hand was as strong and warm as before. Yet still … it didn't bring the same emotions to her it once did. Her heart wasn't trembling at his touch anymore. She wasn't about to faint, not even close to it.

Was it over …?

They finally stopped on the last floor, coming close to the edge of the broad balcony with broken railing. It was when Naruto finally let go of her hand, forming a ram seal and turning back into himself, though still wearing the Akatsuki coat identical to the one she herself had on her at the moment.

"It's been a while, eh?" he asked, sitting down on the floor in the lotus pose, not looking directly at her.

And what was he going to tell her? Hinata could only keep wondering, because she now realized that she didn't really have anything to say to him. So, after what seemed like an eternity, the girl finally answered, calmly and clearly, "Yes."

He slightly turned his head so that she was only able to see the corners of his left eye and his mouth. Naruto was smiling, but it was far from his usual wide, shiny and inspiring smile she remembered.

"You sure have changed a lot since the last time we talked," the boy said, not nearly as cheerfully as he was speaking just a minute ago.

The girl frowned a bit, hesitating to reply, or rather not knowing how to react to his remark. Why did Sasuke let her go and talk to Naruto? What for? She didn't want to talk to him. Not that she was mad at the man, or afraid of him, or anything like that, she just … basically saw no reason to talk to him. What was the point? There was literally nothing connecting them anymore. Or, well … of course, he still most likely was the future leader of her village, but their speech clearly wasn't going to be what they call a formal conversation.

"A lot of things have happened," she finally said, realizing it way too late that she was basically excusing herself by replying to him like that. She certainly didn't want to make such impression … she didn't need his compassion or understanding, nor did she need his approval. Sasuke was right – Naruto was her past. And even that past had existed only in her dreams – it never was real to begin with.

 _And by now, it ceased to exist long ago._

"Yeah, I can see that. And I feel it, too," he sighed, as if the jinchūriki was hesitating to get to the point of this conversation himself. And seeing him like that was pretty awkward, because since when Naruto was ever hesitating? Something was off with him. And she didn't quite understand what in particular.

And then Hinata distantly realized that she didn't stutter in front of him anymore. If anything, she could talk to him normally, or even be mean if she wanted. Like he was a normal person. Or a nobody. Was there any difference at this point …?

"Why are you here?" she suddenly asked, feeling herself frown. It wasn't what she initially intended to say, but this also was the question that really was bothering her among a few others.

"Are you asking me why have I joined you guys, or why did I take you here?"

"Both," she snapped, thinking that it probably sounded rude, but in reality she didn't mean it to be so – perhaps it was because of the months she had spent with Sasuke that her manner of speech changed and became more laconic, just like the Uchiha's own was with other people.  
With everyone but _her._

Naruto sighed, lowering his head slightly. His behavior seemed weird. Surely if anyone was supposed to feel uncomfortable there, that would be her ...

"It's a mission I've been assigned to by Kakashi-sensei … as for the second part, eh … well, I kinda feel like I owe you an explanation after what happened between us back then. At the fest, I mean," he replied honestly, and she appreciated that – at least he now respected her enough to not come up with something lame or funny like he did before, clearly taking her serious this time, not daring to talk to her like he did in the past.

Finally he acknowledged her.

Coming closer to him, she sat down next to the boy, hugging her knees and looking at him with curiosity, as if trying to get a better understanding of her own feelings more than actually listening to him.

"I thought you made it pretty clear back then, Naruto," his head turned to her and the blond teen eyed her thoughtfully, without any sign of a smile this time. This was the first time when she didn't add any honorifics to his name, but it came out so … naturally. She clearly did it unconsciously … and it seemed very similar to Sasuke.

Again.

"I loved you. You refused to accept my feelings. End of the story," she eyed him carefully, too, watching as he scratched his nape again, just like he always used to when he felt embarrassed or baffled.  
But she didn't find it cute anymore. In fact, she felt nothing but slight curiosity.

Both of them were silent for a while, and only in a minute he finally opened his mouth again, "Well … that's not entirely true," the boy finally uttered, making her heart skip a beat. What did he mean by spurting this nonsense now …?

"Care to elaborate?"

Now that certainly sounded rude of her. Naruto sighed again, turning away and lowering his head as if he truly was feeling ashamed. Perhaps he actually did feel so? Pretending wasn't something Naruto would do.

"You see … thing is that I wasn't completely honest with you back then. Perhaps I was confused, or somehow I felt it was a right thing to do at the time… but …," she didn't interrupt him, eying him patiently, without blinking, as if he was about to reveal some secret that would change her life once again.  
The girl clenched her fists and teeth.  
She wouldn't let that happen, at all costs.

"I lied to you back then, and now I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry that it had to come to this," he finally uttered, raising his head to look at the roof of the building on the opposite side of the street – the one where Hinata had stabbed his other clone with her bone a few days ago.

"I don't understand," she replied, impassive, not moving her gaze off him for a second. She partly expected her heart to stop, or her hands to start shaking like they usually did when she was nervous around him, but … none of that happened.

"I told you that I liked Sakura-chan, but that wasn't true … well, not entirely so. And, well … I made you think that I didn't like you … but that's not true, either."

Her gaze became sullen, but not because of his words – rather because of her reaction.  
Nothing. She felt nothing. What was happening to her? It was meant to be a life changing revelation, without a doubt. Yet still...

"Thing is, eh … I liked you in _that_ way ever since the moment when you woke me up from Obito's speech … back on the battlefield, when Neji–" he didn't finish the sentence, turning his head once again to face her instead, meeting the girl's white eyes. Hinata didn't think she could remember him ever being as serious as he was at the moment. "And I liked you back when you approached me at the fest, too. Damn … I like you even more now that I see how much you've changed and how strong you've become, though still remaining the same Hinata I remember … deep inside. I can feel it, too. Though the others probably wouldn't. You really seem different now, y'know."

After a moment of silence, she wanted to lower her eyes shamefully, but decided not to – Sasuke was right, she needed to face her past in order to move onwards, not to hide from it like she did up to this moment.

Sasuke... even in a situation like that, she couldn't get him out of her head. What was he thinking right now ...?

"Why?" it was all she managed to squeeze out, desperately trying to focus. It was unbelievable … her life could be entirely different now if only she knew the truth. If only she could see through his lie back then, she could ask him to help her with her clan. But … come to think about it … what would've awaited her in this case? She'd still remain the same weak, fragile girl who would be used by everyone including Naruto, only deepening in her illusional, kind, nonexistent world. And Naruto himself … would he be able to make her as strong as she was now? Would he even be able to protect her from her clan? From receiving the seal?

Would he be able to make her truly happy? To make her feel alive …?

He sighed, giving her a sad smile as if in response to her thoughts.

"Because my feelings were, well ... fresh. They only kinda started to bloom recently, when I was already seventeen, during the war. And, well … Ero-sennin told me how this stuff works. I knew that you felt something for me ever since our childhood … since that time when I protected you from those bullies, remember?" he smiled at the nostalgic memory – and he was right, she still remembered that. "Didn't you think I'd forget what you said to me when you tried to save me from Pain? Hell, no! But I also know that our childhood crushes vanish with time. It happened to my own feelings for Sakura," his smile then disappeared, and for the first time during their entire conversation Hinata finally felt something clench her heart. "I just, well ... wanted you to get past that crush. To see you overcome it, and then … perhaps … to let something different grow in your heart," she finally looked away from him, gazing at the noisy crowd on the street underneath them. What was she supposed to say to him now? Naruto was honest with her at last, and she wasn't going to lie to him either, no matter how painful her words could sound. After all, they fought the war to prevent being forced to live in the world of illusions Madara intended to create. Neither of them wanted to be delusional anymore, at least of that she was sure.

"Well, then I guess it worked out just as you had planned," Hinata finally said, once again without trying to make it sound rude, yet she could feel … no, _see_ that her words were hurting him.

He looked away as well, staying silent for a while.

"So you love him now, don't ya?" he finally asked, raising his eyes again, this time to look at some particular point in the sky directly above the roof of the building in front of them. "I can sense a bit of his chakra inside your body, too," he suddenly added casually, making the girl give him a baffled look before blushing for the first time during their entire conversation, finally getting what he tried to imply with this weird remark. But she wasn't going to try to make an excuse by showing him the seal on her neck – Naruto could think whatever he wanted, she didn't really care.

There was another long moment of silence. Hinata didn't want to respond quickly, as if snapping it just to make the Uzumaki feel more hurt – she was going to mean what she was about to say, and the girl wanted him to get it right.

He was correct. She loved Sasuke with every fiber of her being. Now that she knew what kind of person the Uchiha truly was deep inside, under the cold shell of indifference and harshness, after everything he went through ever since he was a child, it was hard for her to understand how it was even possible to not love him. Within just half a year, the man managed to become everything to her. He was her only true friend, her master, her inspiration. He changed her, but at the same time he didn't break her – she didn't realize it in the beginning, but what Sasuke really did all along was just showing her the right path, allowing the Hyūga to choose herself if she wanted to walk it or not, not forcing her to.

The path she always failed to find through her whole life before she met him ...

He also was the most selfless person she knew – and at the same time, he wasn't weak like she herself once was, misunderstanding the reason of her weakness.

He taught her to be strong and caring at the same time, something she never imagined to be possible thanks to her father who always told her that her selflessness actually led her to weakness ... but Sasuke had proven him wrong long ago. In reality, her only weakness was her insecurity. From her very childhood, Hinata had been convinced by literally _everyone_ that she was weak. Nobody really believed in her. Everyone made her think that a caring, _weak_ person like herself always needs to be sheltered. Even Naruto … he always inspired her, and he still partly did, but what she always failed to see that there was a very huge difference between the two of them. Sure, he also cared for his friends above everything else, but at the same time, he always had his own goals he wanted to reach, for nobody but himself.  
To become Hokage. To create bonds with other people. And to do these things, he needed to prove himself to the others. That was his way of becoming strong, but also his great weakness, because he really depended on people and their opinion on him.

And she … she never had any desire to do anything for herself alone, nor to prove anything to anyone, and the lack of such intention led her to think that she couldn't really do anything on her own. That it would always remain like that, no matter how hard she worked in her attempts to change it. And she believed it, because there really was nobody to make her think otherwise, so she remained weak until Sasuke finally made her see it herself – she was strong _because_ she didn't really _need_ anyone's approval. And looking at Naruto's misguiding example, Hinata misconceived the cause and the consequence, starting to believe that perhaps it was her way, too. Perhaps she just needed to prove them all wrong.

But it was never really about power or chakra, though she had enough of both now. Obito was much stronger than them when he was the jinchūriki of the Jūbi, yet his will gave a crack, so they managed to defeat him despite the huge difference in power.

After all, power didn't matter that much – _will_ did, and her will was strong. The only thing she really needed was to realize and to accept it. And once she did, it allowed her to acquire the power she never even dreamed of … even being in the same league with infamous Akatsuki members nowadays.

She suddenly recalled the phrase Sasuke said before they parted down in the hall.

 _We are ninja. We can endure._

The Uchiha … he could endure everything, for his will was _unbreakable_.

The one they called a monster, a merciless murderer, the second coming of Madara … no matter how much pain the man suffered, no matter how hard his life became, even if he was completely alone and had _nothing at all_ , he still wanted to do everything in his power for the others.

Never for himself. Never caring what people thought of him.

He wanted to avenge his clan, and then his brother's ruined life without really caring for his own fate.  
He wanted to start a revolution, locking himself in the darkness of solitude forever, just to stop people's suffering and to maintain peace.  
He had allowed her to go with him with such ease, as if it was nothing to him, though it was obvious that it went totally against his initial plans.  
He was so careful teaching her, being there for her even when the girl was about to give up, never wavering or losing his patience with her ...  
He risked his life to save her quite a few times, including this night, never asking anything in return, as if it went without saying.  
And in the end … he rejected her feelings because he didn't want Hinata to sacrifice her life for him. Because he cared about her and about his clan, never about his own happiness.

What Uchiha Sasuke had yet to understand that she was just like him in that sense – kind, caring and selfless. The only difference was that he always was strong enough to not allow anyone to confuse him, and he always had his own way of doing things, never listening to what the others said, never wanting anyone's admiration, approval or even simple understanding.

Fortunately enough, now she was there to care for his happiness, and there was no way Hinata was going to let him stay alone anymore, no matter how stubborn her man would be about it. It was different now, because he had made her strong, too. Perhaps he didn't realize it yet that he needed her just as badly as she needed him, but Hinata saw that he already could feel it sometimes, though Sasuke was reluctant to admit it to himself due to his natural stubbornness.

But that was going to change, sooner or later. She would make sure of it.

"Yes, I love him," she finally uttered, catching herself on realization that she nearly forgot about Naruto's question as she was reflecting on the past and on her own feelings – the answer was obvious to her by now anyway.

Naruto sneered happily, though with a small glimpse of sadness, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Then I guess I just have to deal with it, eh … perhaps it was ought to happen, after all. Fate is a strange thing, y'know. They called me the dead last, and look how it all turned to be …," it didn't sound like he was proud of it – more like he was deepening in his thoughts on the matter. "Well, anyway … the older brother should beat the younger one more often than the other way around, and we had a draw after the last time. So that's only natural, don't ya thing so ...? After all, you finally managed to see it yourself – he's a cool guy, even though a douchebag sometimes," he mumbled, and this remark seemed strange to her. Brothers? She knew for sure that Sasuke and Naruto weren't related by blood.

Then what …

Hinata frowned, finally realizing what was going on. He was talking to his tenant, the Kyūbi, not noticing that he was voicing his thoughts out aloud now.

"Brothers? What are you talking about?" she asked as her curiosity outweighed her tactfulness. Of course, the Hyūga never imagined to have this conversation with Naruto instead of Sasuke, but … wouldn't it be the best time to confirm her deductions? He seemed a bit lost in his thoughts and feelings at the moment, and Naruto always was far more talkative than Sasuke anyway, especially when it came to delicate issues...

He blinked, looking at her with confusion before making an embarrassed grimace.

"Eh ... that … to be honest, I'm not quite sure if it's my place to–"

"Is this about Indra and Ashura?" she just tested her luck by asking it bluntly, but apparently it worked – Naruto stared at the girl with a shocked expression now.

"How do you know about it …?" he asked, looking at her with disbelief and a bit of... awe, and suspicion at the same time. Despite being a pretty artless guy, he wasn't a fool. If she didn't understand the part about the brothers, then she obviously wasn't quite familiar with their past.

Hinata simply shrugged, trying to make it look like it wasn't a big deal to her.

"I know that you and Sasuke are somehow associated with these names, as well as with the Sage of the Six Paths. That's all I'm aware of. I never dared to ask him about it, but I thought I could ask you now that you've mentioned it... if you trust me enough, of course. I'll understand it if you don't, especially after … everything," looking away sheepishly, she felt amazed by her own suddenly appearing cunning by pushing his buttons like that, but apparently it worked.

Naruto frowned before quickly replying,

"Well, y'know, that's some complicated stuff … these powers we have, his Rinnegan and my Rikudō Sennin Mode … we've received them not just 'cause we're so cool and everything, eh …," he smirked, but then his expression quickly changed to a more serious and thoughtful one. "We're … well, he and I … we're kinda incarnations of Indra and Ashura, the two sons of the Rikudō geezer. That's why this power have awakened in us back then, when Madara had killed us. We've met the old man in some weird place between here and the afterlife, and, well, he told us everything. Sasuke is Indra's incarnation, and I'm Ashura's. We're ones of many, though. Madara was Sasuke's previous one, and the First Hokage was mine–" he suddenly stopped, raising his head to gaze in the clouded night sky once again. "Looks like he didn't lie about the show ...," the blond whistled, smirking. "That's Sasuke-teme for ya!"

Hinata quickly snapped her head to look up and see what was there and gasped – she'd never got to see the Uchiha's Pefect Susanō clearly before, and now it was there, floating above the village on its huge chakra wings, not too far from them. It looked absolutely magnificent and demonic, not to mention that it was immense – in a way, it reminded her of Naruto's Kyūbi chakra avatar, but somehow it looked much more frightening, even though the fox was actually well known as a demon. Perhaps it was because Naruto's chakra always was warm and calming, and Sasuke's usually was icy cold and dark.

She then noticed the the crowd downstairs became silent – people were pointing at the giant chakra construct, lowering their voices to cautious whispers.

And then it started.

"People of Amegakure," Sasuke's voice was incredibly loud, and it also sounded a bit different than usual – not only because of the slightly different timber, but it also was much more emotional than his usual impassive speech. Quickly activating her Byakugan, Hinata could see Orochimaru floating near both surviving Uchiha clan members inside the jewel on the Susanō's head and channeling his wind chakra to increase the volume. Sasuke himself wasn't fluent with Fūton, for as far as she knew, he never cared to train using this element despite having the affinity thanks to the Rinnegan.

"Your god has returned. My name is Indra, and I am the one who you've been waiting for throughout all these years of hardships and humiliation. But that time is over," he made a rhetorical pause, allowing the citizens of Ame to comprehend his words which, without a doubt, sounded shocking for them to say the least.

"The man you knew as Pain, that self-proclaimed 'god', was merely my wannabe - a priest who had received my blessing and had attained a small piece of my infinite power, insane enough to believe that he could actually rival me. I entrusted him with leading you into the bright future, and he utterly failed, deciding to go after his own petty desires … but now I'm here to control it all by myself," he paused again, and both Hinata and Naruto could hear the hum of voices downstairs. "I'm back with my loyal followers to lead you this time. I'm giving you the blessing, as well as the warning. The blessing is the ten people you know under the name of Akatsuki," he quickly whispered something to Yutaka, and his older clansman nodded, looking a bit nervous. "From now on, you are to consider them angels I've sent to save you. The rings they are wearing are holy – whoever attacks someone wearing the ring, or tries to impersonate himself as one of my angels, is to be killed on spot without mercy."

"Ain't he overdoing it a bit, though ...?" Naruto drawled, narrowing his eyes at the pretentious speech of his friend.

"Not really … most people in this village are brainwashed zealots who can't live without the presence of their 'god', in one form or another. The lack of it caused the stagnation and tension that was increasing up to now … that's why abusing their religious feelings is the best way to control them," she said casually, not moving her eyes from Sasuke, making Naruto stare at her with his mouth open.

"You're not trying to tell me that you were the one to come with this plan, are ya?" He asked, amazed by both her indifferent reaction to Sasuke's words and her own cynicism. Of course, he wasn't a naive boy anymore, but it still sounded … wrong.

Hinata simply shrugged.

"We studied them for a while, and decided that it's the best way."

He waited a few seconds before turning away, not saying anything for he found it hard to believe his ears, but not seeing any valid reasons to complain.

At the same time, Sasuke continued with his speech,

"You're going to see me again soon enough. Until then, my angels will lead you into the promised future that has been stolen from you. The man who was leading this village up to now was misguided by Pain's twisted teachings. Just like all of you, he had been a victim of a liar, but he has redeemed himself in my eyes. I entrust him with your well-being and leave him in charge of everything while I'm absent, for from this day on, he follows the will of the true god."

Sasuke, or rather Indra went silent, letting Orochimaru use the voice increasing jutsu on his relative instead.

"I won't fail you, my people! I swear on my life, and may the god himself be my witness!" Yutaka's voice sounded a bit different as well, but he seemed to be quite inspired by Sasuke's speech. Or was it more because of Indra's immense power …?

The Susanō's chakra dispersed, and Hinata could see Sasuke grabbing Orochimaru and Yutaka's collars midair, teleporting them away instantly before someone could spot them.

The crowd was silent for a few seconds, and the the incredible collective howl of cheering came, repeating Indra's name again, again and again, to the point when it seemed that even the walls of massive buildings around were about to start shaking.

"He's quite impressive, isn't he?" Naruto smirked, standing up from the floor of the balcony.

Hinata gave him a thoughtful look, as if remembering something from the past, before replying,

"His power and his looks is not what makes him who he is, neither does his ability to be impressive. I don't really care about it all," she said, standing up from the cold floor as well and wiping dust off her – or rather Sasuke's – coat.

Naruto smiled empathetically, getting her point.

"I know right … I can feel it in your heart how deeply you're attached to him now, after all that happened. It's nothing like what Sakura used to feel for him … and nothing like what you felt for me, too," he added, sounding a bit jealous this time, but quickly adding, "Just kidding. I'm happy for ya... both of you, actually. Sasuke deserves an awesome girl like you to care for his sorry-ass. I guess my girl is still waiting for me to meet her! Do you think she's cool? I bet she's strong enough to beat the crap outta me, just like mom was …!"

Hinata couldn't hold a sincere smile this time, hearing his careless jabbering. Even though her feelings had changed, sometimes the blond jinchūriki still was just too adorable.

"Thank you, Naruto. I truly appreciate it. And …," her face became serious again, but unlike before, her eyes remained warm. "I'm glad to see you again. I'm glad we talked and settled everything."

He smirked, scratching his nape.

"Yeah, me too! I missed both of ya! It's kinda cool that we now can hang out like the old times, eh? Well, though not quite like that, but still! I can't wait to talk to Sasuke! Did he get stronger? I bet he'd learned some super cool badass jutsu to show off, but I've got quite a few new tricks myself, too! Believe it!" He kept jabbering, and Hinata could only shake her head, smiling. Even though he'd changed over time just like her and Sasuke, it seemed that some parts of them were going to stay intact forever. Naruto was still Naruto, though more serious and understanding. Sasuke was still Sasuke, though more warm and open to the others now. And she...

She was still the same Hinata, but now she was strong and could stand up for herself, not doubting her capabilities for a second. She didn't care what the others thought of her anymore. And, more importantly, she had finally stopped living in illusions.

"By the way," she suddenly interrupted him, and Naruto gave the Hyūga a puzzled look, distantly noticing that she turned to be about five inches shorter than him now, after half a year of her and Sasuke being away from Konoha, "Why did you look like a woman when you came here?" she asked curiously, because it didn't make much sense – he hadn't even tried to hide his true personality from anyone in Akatsuki.

"Ah, that," he smirked, looking self-satisfied and proud. "That's a jutsu I've been practicing with Ino-chan's help all along … she taught me to, well ... kinda imitate split personality with my shadow clones and Henge no Jutsu. Basically, I can create a shadow clone and make it behave like a completely different person, and you won't be able to see through it! You heard him, even Sasuke-teme couldn't! Cool, eh? That woman was a kunoichi from this village whom we had captured a few months ago, just prior to the start of my training. She was the prime test subject, like Ino-chan said … meh, it sounds kinda creepy, but she killed our civilians. I think it kinda serves her right," he said, and Hinata smirked. The doubt in his voice was clear. Apparently he still didn't fancy the idea of revenge, but at least he could understand that it was a natural desire that would never cease to exist while they were still humans.

"Sounds impressive indeed. Are you going to use that woman's personality to hide the fact that you're a part of Akatsuki? I don't think it's an appropriate position for the future Hokage."

"Yeah!" Naruto visibly brightened at her mentioning of his dream. "That was Kakashi-sensei's idea! Though I couldn't come up with a name for her yet... any ideas?" he looked at the Hyūga, making a begging gesture.

Hinata thought for a second before replying,

"What about Ashura? Sasuke is now calling himself Indra in front of the villagers anyway … and it sounds cool enough, doesn't it?" she suggested, noticing Karin who was waving to them from the end of the corridor.

Naruto slapped his forehead, moaning in embarrassment.

"Of course! You're a genius, Hinata-chan! I should've thought about that!" he laughed, making her feel a bit embarrassed herself – Karin clearly could hear them from that distance.

"Yes, but you're going to call me just 'Hinata' in front of everyone in Akatsuki from now on," she stated in a tone that wasn't tolerating any objections.

Naruto's eyes widened as he pointed at her accusingly, "Woah, now you're bossy just like Sasuke! Damn that teme and his influence …!" he moaned as they approached the redhead who looked impatient, wearing the female Akatsuki uniform without the coat.

"Hey, Karin. Long time no see," Hinata finally managed to properly greet the girl, giving her a warm smile.

Sasuke's former teammate smirked, looking at the Hyūga with amusement.

"Awhile indeed. I can sense Sasuke's chakra all over you. You didn't waste any time, did you?" her smirk was devilish, and Hinata blushed for the first time in awhile. She just had to say it in front of Naruto again to confirm his previous conclusion about them!  
 _Damn it_ … s _till_ , Hinata reminded herself, _I don't care what she believes_.

"Well, not entirely so …," she lowered her white eyes sheepishly, and Karin laughed, winking to the blond boy who seemingly didn't understand what the two of them were talking about.

"Sure it isn't. Well, I just wanted to show you guys your quarters. I've decided that you and Sasuke could share the same room – not that you haven't done it before," Hinata groaned, and Karin laughed again, making Naruto smirk and laugh himself, finally showing that he got what she was talking about. "And you, my dear cousin," she turned to the jinchūriki, making him stop laughing and gasp, standing there with his mouth open, as if he was afraid to move under her piercing stare, "You're going to share the next room with Suigetsu the moron. Personally I don't advise you to change your gender while you're alone with him – he's become much of a pervert lately. Anyway," she turned to face Hinata again, ignoring the now embarrassed Naruto. "Geez, you really look bad. Go take a shower or something, wash the gore away. I'm gonna go with you and check your condition – I'm a medic nin, after all. And no complains," she grabbed Hinata's sleeve and pulled her towards the room that was meant for her an Sasuke.

"Wait ... what do you mean COUSIN?" Naruto suddenly yelped, but the door had already closed.

* * *

"Damn, teme... she's become quite an arse, just like you," muttered Naruto, gazing at the horizon.

He and Sasuke were sitting on the small observation platform on top of the Tower. It was already nearly dawn, but people of the entire village were still celebrating the 'miracle' Sasuke had performed for them as well as the successful outcome of their revolution. And the members of the new Akatsuki were resting in their rooms for a good hour by now. After all, it was a tough night for each of them.

But for the two brothers, this meeting was the best possible relief after all the hardships they withstood on their ways, though none of them would ever admit it.

"You're just jealous, that's it. I've read her memories with the Human Path. I know it all, so cut the crap," Sasuke smirked, lazily trying to mock his old friend.

"Well, I can't deny that I'm … wait … how could you get the stuff about my own feelings through her memories, you jerk?" blurted Naruto, pointing his finger at the Uchiha.

"Hn. I never said I did, I just guessed. Too easy." Sasuke closed his eyes, still smirking mockingly. Both of them realized that this was merely an act of tribute to the old times, but they still enjoyed the opportunity quite a lot. Sometimes they just really wanted to be carefree children again... by now, they nearly forgot that feeling.

"Well, anyway," Naruto mumbled, looking at the slowly rising sun – the rain had stopped the moment Sasuke finished his speech to the villagers. It was supposed to be another fake 'miracle' for them, some sort of testimony of his power. "I think I've managed to make Sakura-chan realize that she has to get over you. At least she said she understands, and I could feel that she wasn't lying."

Sasuke turned his head slightly, giving Naruto a questioning glance.

"If that's true, then it's good. Sometimes I nearly started to miss her constant annoying yelping," he smirked. "After all, it turned that she wasn't as bad as I thought she was."

Naruto gasped, pointing at him accusingly again.

"Are you trying to tell me that you like her now? After all the effort I'd put into making her give up on her obsession with ya, teme …!"

Sasuke sighed, shaking his head.

"No, you idiot … unlike you, I don't only think about the opposite gender. There are more important things."

"What about Hinata-chan, though?" hearing the question, Sasuke gave a deadpan glance to his knucklehead friend who suddenly looked much more serious. "She told me she loves you when we talked an hour ago. Not sure if you're even aware–"

"She told me, yes," he snapped, returning his gaze to the horizon, annoyed by Naruto's reluctance to change the topic.

"And?"

Sasuke closed his eyes, thinking for a while.

"What do you want me to say now, dobe?" he asked, trying to maintain his usual calm tone.

"I dunno? Like, that you love her too? Or something among those lines?" said Naruto with sincere confusion in the voice, as if such claim wouldn't be a big deal.

The Uchiha looked at him as if his friend was a hopeless idiot, though sometimes Sasuke was sure that he actually was.

"It's very far from being that simple, and you know it."

"Eh?" the jinchūriki barked, leaning forward.,"How come?"

Sasuke gave him a very serious glare before patiently saying,  
"I don't want her to become my incubator, and at the same time, I want to revive my clan. Isn't it clear? I'm sure even a dumbass like you could figure it out."

"Oh–" Naruto stopped, suddenly frowning. "You've got a point here... but wasn't that Yukaka or whatever's his name guy your relative? You're not alone in this shit anymore, teme! You can just relax and enjoy being with yo girl, y'know! Unless you want me to steal her from ya, of course!"

"Try it. I'm sure I'll enjoy visiting your grave on holidays."

Naruto giggled, smirking at his friend... or his brother – he couldn't distinguish at this point, and he didn't really care. Sasuke was both.

"Just kidding, relax … still, since you've found the dude, why not just tell Hinata-chan that you love her and everything? I don't get it."

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes. In a way, Naruto had a point there – after Yutaka agreed to cooperate, there was no point in avoiding Hinata anymore. And if she even told Naruto, her former obsession, that she loved him – Sasuke … that was quite a reason to do something at last, wasn't it? At least she had passed her final test brilliantly...

"I guess you're right," he finally replied.

"See? It's not that hard!"

Sasuke lowered his eyes, looking at the street. He still hesitated to do that, the teen wasn't going to deny it – but it wasn't that he was afraid of Hinata's response or anything like that. More that he didn't like the idea stepping onto the uncommon ground of this kind of relationship, especially when they _really_ were in the middle of something that could bring the entire world down to hell.

But then again … he was a man, and she was a very pretty woman. Even if he didn't count the deep bond that had formed between the two of them … he was attracted to her, without a doubt. And despite being a perfect shinobi, and an incarnation of the certain nearly almighty immortal being … unfortunately, right now, he still was a human. On top of that, he was a teen. Damn it, even if he'd never admit it – especially to Naruto, of all people … it was ridiculous, but sometimes it was hard to even stay with her in the same accommodation at nights. He barely was able to sleep, seeing her lying next to him, sometimes barely dressed … that was partly the reason why they constantly were on the verge of conflict for the last few weeks, for the two of them were forced to spend twenty four hours a day in the same room, frustrated and incredibly bored. It had been driving him nuts... and he was sure it went for her as well – it couldn't miss his eye that the girl always lingered at his touch, especially after that kiss on the roof …

Sasuke quickly shook his head, nearly cursing.

And Naruto just gazed at him with his eyes narrowed and his face expressionless.

"Damn, teme … you two really need to get laid."

"As if you know anything about that!" he snapped much more quickly and emotionally than he wanted to, finally exploding for the first time in a very long time. Perhaps Naruto was the only one who could annoy him to such extent...

The Uzumaki giggled, turning away and smirking at the rising sun.

"Well, not really … but you wouldn't want to lose to me on this field as well, would ya?"

"I'm not going to discuss our personal life with you, dobe, period. And tell the Kyūbi that my emotions are private, they don't concern you. Now then … what were Kakashi's instructions for the next part of the operation?" now he really felt embarrassed and pissed, but on top of it, he felt aroused by the thought about doing _that_ with Hinata, and it didn't make the whole situation any better. Not that he hadn't imagined that before … but he couldn't tolerate Naruto, of all people, mocking him like that.

The blond blinked.

"Kurama has nothing to do with that, it's all written on your face. But, if you say so …," he smirked at Sasuke's murderous glance. "We still need to find the tenth member … but Kakashi-sensei said Orochimaru has an idea on the matter, I guess ya better ask him about that."

"And afterwards?" Sasuke noticed Naruto tapping his coat thoughtfully – apparently the teen wasn't very fascinated with the idea of being a part of the very organization that hunted him for years.

"Our intel says that Kusa is preparing to launch an attack against our country – they want to support Ame at that, since they obviously have no idea what happened here yet. We – as in Akatsuki – are to counter it by striking them first whenever we're ready, as soon as we find the tenth member and settle things here in Ame. But we should do it as soon as possible, I think. As far as I understood, our ultimate goal is to force all the neutral countries join the Land of Fire, using Akatsuki to do so ... thus creating the superpower our world have never seen. With me and you by its side, and the protection granted by the neutral countries we'll conquer and then give up to Konoha, we'll ensure the safety of our lands and people, and the others will be forced to cooperate," he nearly quoted Kakashi, though clearly being displeased with the orders he had been given, but obeying them nonetheless.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow in confusion, for a second refusing to believe that it was Naruto saying it to him at the moment. It seemed so out of character, and, well...

"Apparently you don't really like his plan, do you?" He wasn't going to comment it yet – it was probably hard for the Uzumaki to finally start realizing that he couldn't just create an utopia, and that Ninshū was merely an unrealistic teaching created by a naive man whose mistakes nearly drove their world to its end more than once. Such perfection could only exist within the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and they both defied the idea. They just had to fight for what was precious to them, that's all there was to it.  
And It was only natural, just like hatred, love and pain. Naruto needed to understand and accept it.

The blond just shrugged – his face remained impassive, but there was a visible hint of sadness written on it.

"I s'pose we can't help it … of course, I'd like everyone to cooperate as it is, but it doesn't seem to be possible …" Naruto flinched as he felt Sasuke's only hand on his shoulder – turning to face his friend, he couldn't help but find his confident expression quite reassuring.

"Don't worry. Kakashi was a shitty teacher, but he's not an idiot, and I can understand his reasoning. We need to protect Konoha above everything else, and it would be foolish to hope for everyone to forget all the old grudges and claims after the end of the war. You know," he let go of Naruto's shoulder, coming closer to the edge of the roof and inhaling the chilly morning air, "I've been traveling a lot, and the more I saw, the more I came to realize that neither of us was right back then …," he looked down to the street that was still filled with people celebrating 'the god's return'. "It's true that we can't hope for everyone to just suddenly want to unite when there is no enemy force to unite against … but at the same time …," he turned around and faced Naruto, "Perhaps the world just isn't meant to be changed? Perhaps we just need to protect those dear to us, not waste our energy and time to try to reach _everyone_? And something tells me that Konoha is dear to you, as to the future Hokage …" he could see the weak smile appear on the jinchūriki's face, and it made Sasuke smirk in response.

Ever since the day when the two of them lay there at the Valley of the End with their hands destroyed, he hoped that eventually, some day, they'd be able to truly understand each other.

And right now, after the passed night, he really wanted to have a …

Sasuke frowned, looking at Naruto perplexedly – the blond suddenly started to look for something in his pockets with a focused face.

"What are you doing, dobe?"

"Just a sec ... oh, here it is!" he took a small scroll out of his coat's pocket, and, channeling his chakra into his fingertips and touching it. The Uchiha stared at him suspiciously, feeling confused – such scrolls were commonly used by ninja to contain food and drinks on the missions, as well as other tools and weapons, allowing to take a huge amounts of supplies even to a single person.  
Did the idiot suddenly decide to make his mood better by a portion of instant ramen …?  
There was a small cloud of smoke, and then Sasuke could see a bottle of familiar shape in his friend's hand.

"Wanna drink, teme?" he smirked, already knowing the answer and undoing the second seal.

Sasuke smirked as well.

Perhaps the day of understanding would come sooner than later.

* * *

"Woah … I can't believe you haven't pushed him down from the roof for doing that to you! Really, how patient can you be?" Karin blurted, wrapping Hinata's newly grown arm in the bandage after putting some anesthetic salve on the limb – it was the first time when the Hyūga had to actually regrow it, so she had yet to get used to the annoying phantom pain that could last for a few hours, or even days, until her brain would get used to the idea of losing an arm or a leg being a normal thing from now on.

The girl herself was lying on the simple yet broad bed, staring at the stone ceiling with her white eyes, enjoying Karin's company and the dim light of the torches on the walls. And, most of all, she enjoyed the comfortable and peaceful place to rest she needed so much after the eventful night, especially after the brutal fight she had barely survived.

"Not that he wouldn't just use his Shunshin to get back if I did. Besides, I understood his reasoning. At least he has no arguments anymore," said Hinata, smiling with the corners of her mouth.

Karin shook her head, clearly disapproving her acquiesce.

"Well, I suppose that's why he fancies you in the end. Me and you are nothing alike. Besides, he actually kissed you!" she let out a dreamy sigh, rolling her crimson eyes. "That must be much better than being stabbed with his Chidori for sure."

"Oh?" Hinata looked at her, unsure if she actually meant Sasuke's technique or something else …

"Yeah! He nearly killed me back then! But I couldn't stay mad at him for too long. After all, I can regenerate, sort of like you. And it was needed for him to kill that bastard Danzō anyway. He took me hostage and Sasuke had no choice ... well, no matter," she waved her hand dismissively, clearly not willing to remember the painful experience.

Hinata gave the girl a long, thoughtful look. Apparently Karin truly got over Sasuke, but the ease she did it with was pretty surprising, especially considering everything that the Uchiha told her about this woman. But at the same time, Naruto's cousin was pretty similar to the blond – she wasn't a good actress, and it was clear that she couldn't plot something so complicated that involved such flawless acting and pretending. After all, apparently she had some dignity to stop pointlessly stalking him. She also was getting along with Hinata pretty nicely, and the Hyūga didn't mind to have a female friend for once. After all, she never had one to begin with.

"You're not really jealous, are you?" she decided to ask it anyway while Karin was gathering the medicine from the small table near the bed.

"Eh?" the girl fixed her glasses before suddenly making a serious, nearly offended face. "Nah. I can imagine what Sasuke could possibly tell you about me, but ever since the war, I thought about it at all for quite some time, and I kinda figured that we wouldn't fit each other anyway. I still wanna be his friend, and yours, too, for you seem to be a cool, and cool girls should stick together. But I'm not going to ruin what we have as well as his happiness just for another hopeless attempt to get to him. Besides," she smirked mysteriously, looking away and slightly blushing, "I already fancy someone else."

"Oh–" Hinata blinked in surprise. She didn't expect her answer to be so straightforward, but apparently Karin indeed was a lot like Naruto – perhaps not in every sense, but at least in her bluntness and honesty, "I see. That white haired man with the sword? Suigetsu?"

Now Karin blushed terribly, raising her voice and slightly stuttering,

"T-that's … no, not him! Like I'd ever date that piece of shit! It's that cute man Sasuke brought outside along with Orochimaru. Yu... Yuka..."

"Yutaka …?" Hinata smiled at her new friend's reaction, and Karin began to nod quickly.

"Yea, yea, that guy. Anyway, I gotta go. Pretty tired, you know, but I'm sure you're not feeling any better. You should rest and sleep, otherwise your body won't recover as quickly as it should. Want me to extinguish the torches?" she asked, getting up from her chair.

"No, they don't bother me. Thank you very much, Karin," the dark haired girl smiled warmly, and the other kunoichi winked at her, raising her thumb.

"Anytime. See ya," She walked out of the room, closing the door and leaving Hinata in complete silence, as well as in the very good mood. Perhaps she really could get along with this girl … she was indeed very nice.

Of course, she couldn't just fall asleep after everything that happened that night, no matter how tired the Hyūga was. It seemed like an hour or even more before she finally stopped reflecting and started to nape, and then she flinched as the door to the room opened quietly, the sound being followed by light, uneven steps.

Too lazy to activate her Byakugan, Hinata slightly turned her head to confirm her assumption – just in time to see Sasuke dropping his shirt onto the chair Karin was sitting on not long ago, and then he fell down onto the bed next to her.

She flinched again as she felt his arm wrap around her waist, pulling the girl closer to him and lightly kissing her shoulder.

"Hina-ta … g'night …," she could hear him mutter, burying his face in her hair and making the young woman shudder as she felt his hot breath on her neck, but at the same time, Hinata could clearly see that something was off with him – he sounded funny and very unlike himself.

"Sasuke … is everything alright?" she whispered, not really suspecting that something was wrong but rather because she wanted to hear him talking like that again.

"Yeah … had a drink … dobe … recalled the old times," he mumbled again, and Hinata let out a quiet laughter, finally realizing what happened.

"I can see it went great, didn't it?" she whispered, but his only reply was quiet snorting.

Smiling to herself, Hinata closed her eyes and took his hand in hers, slightly rubbing it with her gentle fingers before quickly falling asleep as her mind was finally in peace.


	17. The Immortals

**Chapter 17. The Immortals**

Hyūga Hiashi was a very patient man. It was only natural, for patience was one of the most important elements of discipline, and the teachings of his clan traditionally were all about discipline above anything else. But at the same time, to say that he was an unemotional person would be a big misconception. And although everyone else in the room felt quite depressed and gloomy that dank, chilly evening, the Hyūga clan's Head was feeling and thinking many different things as his wrinkled eyes were running over the accurate, curt lines written on the paper he was currently holding. The scroll was covered with various seals and glyphs of secrecy, but since Hiashi had arrived later than the others, they had already been deactivated.  
Everyone in the room, including the Sixth Hokage, was carefully watching the man's reaction, expecting or perhaps even craving to see the spark of rising anger on his tired face, but it wasn't giving away anything at all.

 _Group 1_  
 _Uzumaki Karin, female, 17;_  
 _Originates from Kusagakure;_  
 _A- to S-rank medic kunoichi, sensory type, capable of using the extremely rare Uzumaki clan kekkei genkai (the chakra binding chains)._

 _Hōzuki_ _Suigetsu, male, 18;_  
 _Originates from Kirigakure;_  
 _S-rank kenjutsu master, one of the successors of the Seven Great Swordsmen, presumably impossible to kill due to his clan's kekkei genkai (the ability to transform his body into water)._

 _Group 2_  
 _Jūgo, male, 19;_  
 _Originates from Otogakure;  
Former test subject of Orochimaru the Sannin, capable of using the most powerful version of the Cursed Seal;  
_ _Mentally unstable._

 _Unknown shinobi, male, age of mid-twenties;  
Originates from Uzushiogakure (according to the symbolic on his forehead protector);_  
 _Possess a pair of Sharingan eyes (presumably stolen), capable of using Mangeky_ ō _Sharingan (the exact abilities are unknown);  
_

 _Group 3_  
 _Jun, male, age of late twenties;_  
 _Originates from Amegakure;_  
 _A-rank shinobi, known as one of the strongest in his country, no specific information on his abilities is available;_  
 _Isn't teamed with anyone at the moment._

 _Group 4_  
 _Ashura, female, age of early twenties;_  
 _Origins are unknown (doesn't wear any recognizable symbolic);_  
 _No specific information on her abilities is available._

 _Teamed with Orochimaru the Sannin, no extra information on whom is required._

 _Group 5_  
 _Indra, male, age of early twenties;_  
 _Origins are unknown_ _(doesn't wear any recognizable symbolic)_ _;  
 _No specific information on his abilities is available;_ _  
The current leader of Akatsuki._  
_

 _Hyūga Hinata, female, 17;_  
 _Originates from Konohagakure;_  
 _S-rank kunoichi, has shown the ability to use multiple A- and S-rank techniques of significant destructive power, as well as the extremely rare kekkei genkai known as Shikotsumyaku which makes her hard to kill or incapacitate._

"The copies of this report have been sent to the other four Kage, so everyone mentioned in this list is officially nukenin now," said Kakashi.

 _Indra ...?_ He narrowed his eyes at the name.

Not bothering to read the actual detailed report on the recent events in Amegakure, Hiashi finally put the scroll back on Hatake's desk, raising his eyes to meet the calm, studying gaze of the Sixth. The gray haired man was sitting on his usual workplace with his arms locked before his half-masked face, and neither of the two shinobi could figure out what was going on in the other's head.

"Hiashi-sama," quietly uttered Kō, slightly bowing his head to his senior. "If I may–"

"No, you may not," the older Hyūga snapped, rapidly thinking and trying to decide what to do from this point onward.

It was clear that the Sixth was expecting some specific reaction from him now. To see his daughter in the list of members of the reestablished Akatsuki wasn't something Hiashi couldn't imagine given that the rumors concerning the group were spreading among the highest echelons of Konoha for a few weeks by now. But even those who had taken those rumors serious seemed to be inclined to think that this version of Akatsuki was merely a wannabe party. Some bunch of bigots who wanted to play villains and to use the fear of the notorious group of terrorists that still lived in many people's hearts, nothing more.  
Yet still … this message that Orochimaru had sent them clearly implied that the current line-up was at least on par with the previous one. The fact that they were able to take Amegakure over in just one night was only proving the reliability of the information they'd received from the sannin who'd agreed to be Konoha's spy in their midst in exchange for the truce between their village and Oto. To him, as a former member of Akatsuki who still had the necessary connections, it was more than a suitable job.

Especially considering the benefits he would receive in the end.

And the fact that his hapless Hinata had reached such level was shocking, but intriguing at the same time. Perhaps even amusing to some extent. Not only his daughter he always considered a waste was now a member of the group of the most dangerous and powerful ninja alive, but she also somehow had managed to acquire the legendary kekkei genkai of their rivals who had ceased to exist long ago. And on top of everything else she also had teamed up with the mysterious leader of the organization himself. Apparently Hiashi really had been underestimating her all this time, and that was a huge mistake on his part…

He was barely able to hold a scowl as he clenched the fingers on his left hand, looking at his palm absently.  
The Hyūga frowned.

Even months ago in Tanzaku-gai, he had seen how much his daughter had improved in the short time of her rogue status. She was able to use the highest level version of Jūken by mixing in some lightning chakra in the same way Kakashi Hatake's Raikiri worked. It wasn't supposed to simply disable one's tenketsu during a fight, but rather to completely obliterate the chakra nodes, ruining the chakra system around them permanently.  
Because of that, ever since that night Hiashi wasn't able to channel chakra into his right hand, which basically rendered him incapable of proper fighting without using kinjutsu. Even Tsunade and her student weren't able to fix such damage, and he was too prideful to accept an artificial hand, not to mention that he wasn't sure if he'd be able to suppress the First Hokage's potent chakra.

Apparently Hinata had found herself a very good tutor … it had to be someone of untold power and skill to make her achieve such impressive results in such a short time.

But who could it possibly be?

No mater how arrogant he was, Hiashi wasn't a fool. He would never deny that there were some shinobi who stood leagues above himself and his entire clan. The last war had shown it clearly – the Uzumaki boy, along with Uchiha Sasuke, had managed to defeat Madara who had been toying with the entire Shinobi Alliance. It was obvious that these two were powerful enough to be able to wipe out the entire Konoha if they wanted to, and it was the villagers' greatest fortune that both of them stood by the Leaf's side.

And they weren't quite unique despite being extremely rare. The First Hokage, Madara, Obito, the Fourth, Itachi – either of them were out of their league.

But most those Hiashi was aware of were already either dead or they were on Konoha's side. And the problem was that while only the Uchiha boy and the Kyūbi's jinchūriki could fall under the Hyūga Head's suspicion as either of them potentially could guide Hinata to become what she had become, Hiashi was certain neither of them would ever want to deal with her. The jinchūriki was too loyal to Konoha to side with a nukenin, and Uchiha Sasuke … while he could do that in theory, there was absolutely no evidence to assume that he had decided to train her. Basically because he had no reason to do that at all – from what Hiashi knew about the former clan of his rivals, they were far too arrogant to associate with those whom they considered lowlifes, and as far as he knew, Sasuke had never even shared a word with his older daughter.

On top of that, the Sixth himself had vouched for the boy …

It was a dead end, without a doubt. If there was someone of that level out there, they all were in trouble. Konoha was in danger, and by the way he looked at him, Hatake Kakashi clearly realized it himself.

The least Hiashi could do in this situation was to find Hinata and make her atone for her sins …

"Basically …," the gray haired Hokage finally looked away, leaning back in his chair and letting out a heavy sigh, "It's not as bad as it looks," he said, raising his eyes to the ceiling of the office thoughtfully.

"What do you mean, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi muttered impassively, though being very surprised by his words.

"They are not aiming for Konoha. If anything, once we've received the confirmation from Orochimaru that Akatsuki had reclaimed Amegakure, their attacks stopped completely."

So that's how it was? It didn't make sense, but then again, nothing about the new Akatsuki did. But if this was the case, then their goals probably didn't concern the Fire Country. Perhaps Hinata was the one to make them stop ...? If his daughter remained anything like the girl he had once known, it would've been very much like her to do so.  
And if this was the case ... perhaps that's why she'd decided to join Akatsuki to begin with?

"What are their intentions then?" Hiashi asked perhaps a tiny bit more sharply than he had intended, frowning.

"Who knows …," the Sixth shrugged, still staring at the ceiling, "It could be anything, really. Starting with bijū and finishing with the original plan that Pain believed in. But it seems that Konoha is out of their interests for now. That's relieving."

"And what are we supposed to do in a situation like this?" Hiashi barked as his mask of indifference finally gave a crack. He couldn't stand seeing Hanabi, his younger daughter and the heir to his clan, standing beside the Hokage with an absolutely emotionless expression, as if she didn't care one bit about the information they'd received from Orochimaru. There was something very bothering in the picture, but Hiashi couldn't quite grasp what exactly it was.

"What can we really do, Hiashi-san?" Kakashi asked as his eyes slid at him lazily, "We're bound by the Pact of the Five Great Nations. We can't attack them on their territory no matter what. And unless they attack us, we can't help it."

"But that's my daughter we're talking about!" he finally exploded, slamming his palms onto the wooden table. "She must be taken care of!"

"What are you suggesting, then?" the Hokage's friendly, nearly mocking tone was just too irritating to the Hyūga clan's Head.

"I–"

"It's our clan's business. We don't have to act on behalf of Konoha. We have our ways," Kō interrupted him, avoiding to look into anyone's eyes. And just as he had said so, Hiashi noticed something strange – apparently his right hand's words finally made Hanabi feel something too strong to keep calm, and by the short glare the girl had given to Kō, it wasn't good at all.

Hiashi smirked. At least his younger daughter was a proper Hyūga – apparently she had wanted to suggest it herself, but Kō had beaten her to it.

But then again, come to think about it … if the intel they'd received was accurate, then his older daughter turned to be the most powerful and ambitious Hyūga in centuries. And despite his desire to punish her for the things she had done, the man couldn't help but feel proud for her deep in his soul.

"That's an interesting suggestion. Normally I would agree, but as the current Hokage I have to ask you: do you realize that whoever gets caught or even noticed and recognized taking part in this operation, the person will be labeled a nukenin and an international criminal the same second? You, Hiashi-san, are no exception," Hatake certainly had the nerve to say something like that to one of the most honorable council members of Konoha and to the leader of the most powerful clan of the village no less … well, not counting the Uchiha, of course. Hiashi still tended to forget that he actually had returned…  
Damn the boy. Apparently he'd forgotten about his promise to bring Hinata back to her clan to meet her judgement ... or perhaps he didn't? What if one of those unknown Akatsuki members was actually him in disguise? Sasuke surely was capable of pulling something like that. And in this case ... perhaps their plan wasn't as hopeless as it seemed to the others?

"We're fully aware of the possible consequences, _Hokage-sama_ ," Hiashi replied, finally regaining his cool at the reassuring thought. "Kō is right. It needs to be done, and as the head of the Hyūga, I will be leading this operation if you allow us to proceed with it."

Kakashi shrugged, giving him a slightly confused look.

"I obviously don't allow it, but of course, it's totally up to you. Whatever you decide to do, I'll act as if I never was aware of it."

Hiashi nodded his head in appreciation. Perhaps he didn't quite like Hatake Kakashi, but at least the man was a true shinobi who understood how their world really worked.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

"But I have to warn you, Hiashi-san," the eyes of the Sixth suddenly became serious for the first time during their entire conversation. "I'm not trying to underestimate your clan in any way, mind you. But I also understand your feelings concerning this … situation, and I can't help but be worried about you. If the information we've received is true, then you'll have to face at least two S-ranked ninja within in a hostile village without any cover to come to your aid. As far as I'm aware, you never happened to deal with Akatsuki … but I did quite a lot. They are extremely dangerous. Don't get deluded by the fact that's it your daughter – according to the intel we have, she's a Kage level kunoichi now. And the capabilities of her partner are absolutely unknown, but he obviously wouldn't be their leader for no reason. I wouldn't be surprised if he's also partly the reason of Hinata's … progress, provided that they really are teamed now. And I think it's obvious that since the leader had chosen her to be his partner, there was a good reason to it as well."

Hiashi frowned, looking at his younger daughter. Strangely enough, Kakashi's words wasn't what really bothered him at the moment. He wasn't sure what the young Hyūga who stood there in her ANBU uniform was thinking now, but he clearly had caught a glimpse of smile on her lips as Kakashi had finished his last line.  
What on earth did she find amusing in such a situation …? She didn't think they'd allow her to join them and face her sister, did she? Foolish child …

"I'm aware, Hokage-sama. But as the head of the clan, I have to stand up for our honor. Even if our lives are in line, we must execute the betrayer no matter the cost."

The Sixth sighed again, closing his eyes.

"Suit yourself, Hiashi-san. But I have one condition. None of my ANBU from your clan is to be involved with this mission. If I find out that at least one of them was allowed to join your group, I will personally do everything to compromise the entire operation."

Hiashi smirked. By saying that, Hatake was only doing him a favor – this way, he wouldn't have to waste his time dealing with Hanabi. While she could possibly argue with him, her father, she was disciplined enough to follow the senior's orders, and that she did – her face was absolutely expressionless again as she heard the words of the Sixth.

"Sure, Hokage-sama. Then it's settled, I believe. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss? We need to prepare for what is coming."

Kakashi shook his head dismissively, lowering his eyes.

"No, you're free to go, Hiashi-san. Take care," he added, and considering all the circumstances, it sounded nearly mockingly again which made Hiashi clench his teeth.

The Hyūga turned away without saying anything else, moving out of the office. Kō followed him right away, not looking at anyone else either.

A minute later Hanabi finally sighed, turning her Byakugan off.

"They've left. That went surprisingly well, Hokage-sama. I was afraid that he's got suspicious, but apparently I was wrong."

Kakashi gave the girl an eye smile, putting his pen away after writing down something short.

"Indeed … I wanted to ask you, though. How's your training with Gai and Lee-kun? Is everything alright? Don't they push you too hard?"

Hanabi smiled warmly, amused by his care.

"No … in fact, I already can open two Gates. I should be able to open the Third Gate soon enough, but Gai-san told me that the Fifth is most likely my limit if I don't want to risk my reproductive system, which I obviously don't. And, anyway, I won't be reaching this level anytime soon – perhaps in a few years, if I train hard enough. But it's so incredibly effective! I guess nobody has ever assumed that it can go along with Jūken so nicely. The combination of our clan's techniques with Gōken is truly amazing, as well as very deceiving and unpredictable in combat."

Kakashi nodded approvingly. He could imagine it. Gōken and Jūken always were considered to be the complete opposites, but come to think about it, if Hanabi really had managed to find the balance between them ... perhaps the duo would turn to be a perfect combination in the end, the styles completing each other like Yin and Yang.

Hatake smiled. He really enjoyed the fact that the Hyūga clan was soon to be led by someone so open-minded and creative.

"Very well … I'm looking forward to seeing it myself. But I didn't ask you about it without a reason. Say, do you think you can manage maintaining the control over three Gates in a crucial situation?"

She blinked, confused and a bit embarrassed. She actually had meant about two or three more weeks when she had told the Sixth about her progress...

"I don't know … I think I can open the Gate itself, but I might not be able to handle the drawbacks just yet. Gai-san told me that it's uncertain if my body is prepared enough or not. Why, Hokage-sama?"

"Because I'm going to assign you to an S-rank mission now, and I want to make sure that you come out of it alive. You're going to have ample time to train during its course, but the stronger you are when you come there the better. Something unexpected may and most likely will be happening in that area. After all, it's a foreign village that's on the brink of war."

Her eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief. Wasn't he going to …?

"Regardless, we have little choice on the matter. Right now I need you to meet the certain two Akatsuki members in a few hours. Don't worry, you're familiar with both of them so that part's going to be fairly easy. They'll be needing your assistance with some messy job, and once you're done, you'll have to stay away from the village for a while. We need to make sure that Hiashi doesn't do anything foolish to you before going for his guerrilla assault. I'm not sure how long it's going to take, so the best option is to stick to them until it's over. Then you'll be able to come back and take the leadership over your clan."

Hanabi nearly jumped in joy as she realized what exactly he was ordering her to do. Her birthday had passed just two days ago, but she couldn't possibly have asked for a better present.

"And who these two can possibly be?" she smirked sheepishly, unable to hold a happy sneer as she felt the foretaste of the long-awaited reunion with her sister.

Kakashi smiled under his mask. It was truly amazing that the girl hadn't lost her cheerful attitude despite being an elite ANBU kunoichi who had already went through quite a few nasty missions at her young age and who was familiar with the darkest aspects of being a ninja.

"You'll see it soon enough. For now, you are dismissed."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" she squeaked, using _Shunshin no Jutsu_ to get out of the office as Kakashi kept smiling, slightly shaking his head. It was amazing how strong both Hiashi's daughters turned to become. If only the man realized how invaluable they were ... the upcoming tragedy could've been avoided.

The Hokage could only pray that neither of them would end up repeating Uchiha Itachi's fate.

"Hm-m, Shizune ...?" he called his assistant, unsure if she was there in her workplace or not. But apparently she'd already returned from the archive – the door opened, and the black haired woman dressed in her usual long dark kimono entered the room, looking at him questioningly.

"Kakashi-sama …?"

"Could you please bring me some tea? And something to eat would be nice, too. That was one hell of a day," he asked, still feeling a bit shy to give orders to the woman who looked pretty tired herself. After all, he had never imagined that he'd become a Hokage one day, and sometimes the man felt like he still hadn't got used to the position.

Perhaps he'd never be.

"Of course," she smiled softly and left the room, heading to the nearest store.

The man stretched his arms, yawning. It was already late in the evening and he still had some paper work to finish. Quite a lot of it, in fact. He even considered using a shadow clone to do it, but then he thought that on the other hand, nothing and nobody was waiting for him at home, so there was no rush anyway...

The last few months were incredibly hard for him in many senses. Ever since Kakashi'd had the talk with his two former students right before the Uchiha had left, it took the Sixth Hokage long weeks of sleepless nights to come up with their … or rather _his_ current plan. But before he was able to formulate it, before he could decide what he must do as the leader of Konoha, he'd had to find and to analyze the flaws in the philosophies of both Naruto and Sasuke. And especially in their views on the definition of Hokage.

Naruto's intentions always were good, but at the same time he was too naive. He believed that peace would last forever just because people had suffered the pain of loss during the war and they didn't want it to repeat. The sole fact that he had managed to convince Sasuke to change his views or, as the blond called it, 'to pull him out of the darkness', had lured the son of Minato-sensei into the false belief that anything could be achieved with words and good will. That understanding each other could make people stop fighting.  
He was wrong.  
Naruto had been confused by the successful outcome of his duel with the Uchiha, and he was so happy about it that he hadn't realized his own misunderstanding of what really had happened between him and his friend.

As a matter of fact, both of them had understood each other even prior to the fateful fight at the Valley of the End half a year ago. Defeating Sasuke didn't make the Uchiha _understand_ Naruto any better – it made him _accept_ some of Naruto's views. But the truth was that both of them had to spill blood to be able to come to this truce. _Suffering_ helped them, not understanding. Naruto had changed Sasuke by _force_ , not with words alone. What the jinchūriki considered his greatest success and the ultimate proof of his idea of peace ... in reality, it was actually quite the opposite. And judging by their recent conversation that had taken part just prior to Naruto's departure to Amegakure, Naruto had already started to realize it, slowly but imminently.

Words were important, sometimes far more important than power, but words _alone_ would never be ample to maintain peace.

On the other hand, Sasuke's idea of the revolution, of becoming the eternal beacon of dictatorship and violence on which people would focus their hatred forever actually made sense, in a way. Perhaps not in every detail, but it did nonetheless. The Uchiha had intended to do something very similar to what Naruto had done to him, but this time to the entire world, forcing everyone to cooperate by using his power and their fear. By making them suffer, by being an everlasting reminder of what they all needed to remember in order to prevent hurting each other.  
Becoming something that was supposed to unite them permanently.

It had its flaws as well, though. Being the opposite extremum point on the scale of possible solutions, it could be effective under certain circumstances. But in reality it had to many weak points, which made it unrealistic as well. There were just too many possibilities of something going wrong, and even if they ignored the fact that such existence would be pure misery both for him and for everyone else, Kaguya's example had clearly shown that no dictator would last forever. Nothing in their world was eternal.  
Eventually, even stars burned out.

In other words, the positions of both of his former students had their advantages and weaknesses, just like any other point of view. The real question was what choice did they have. Because something had to be done, without a doubt.  
And then, after weeks and months of thinking, Kakashi had finally realized two very important things.

The first of them was that since nothing lasted forever, then the eternal peace was obviously impossible in any case. It was but an idealistic, utopic dream.

And the second was that the best possible choice certainly laid somewhere in between the two extremums of the initial ideas of Naruto and Sasuke.

Their world needed the leading power. As it had been prior to the last war, when the Great Countries had been roughly equal to each other due to the balance created with bijū, the wars between them always were inevitable for there was no superpower to solve the uprising conflicts and to play the role of the supreme judge. There simply had been no authority to do so, therefore the only natural way of solving problems always had been spilling blood. Ridiculous misunderstandings between some persons had started fights, and fights had turned into wars where sometimes even entire countries had ceased to exist.

And at the same time, peace was impossible to achieve with the hidden villages system in place – Sasuke was right about that. If a truce lasted for too long, the institutions of ninja started to decay since there was basically nothing for them to do. Ninja who were born and raised for the sole purpose of fighting until their last breath had no job and no way to prove themselves, becoming criminals out of despair and poverty, which in its turn caused havoc within the countries, forcing their leaders to choose between starting a war with another country or sinking into a civil war instead.

And that's what was soon to happen in Konoha if they didn't do something as soon as possible. If _Kakashi_ didn't do something. It wasn't very notable just yet, but the frustration out of their inability to strike Amegakure back was nearly palpable among the ninja in the village. On top of that, the amount of available missions was decreasing with each day. Some shinobi and especially kunoichi even resigned, attempting to go for a life of a civilian, usually only to find out that they weren't suited for it at all, and thus leaving them the only choice. To become criminals.

And Kakashi knew for sure that the situation in the other Great Countries wasn't any different, if not worse than that.

That's how their world had been working until the Fourth Great War, but now everything was a bit different.

If he managed to execute his plan exactly in the way he had thought it through, it could grant them at least a few decades, or perhaps even a century of peace by making Konoha take the leading role in the world.

Since creating new jinchūriki was against the Pact between the Five Great Nations now, the balance between the countries had become shaky. The Pact was the only thing that really was delaying the beginning of the next destructive war, but only naive idealists like Naruto really believed that other countries agreed to it just because they craved peace.

The truth was that they didn't have their weapons of massive destruction anymore, while Konoha still had Naruto and Sasuke. Sure, Kumo still had Killer Bee, but his power paled in comparison with these two, not to mention that it also brought its contribution into the global disbalance.

In the end the said Great Countries were _forced_ to agree to cooperate, even though there was no threatening or any unfriendliness on words between them.

Basically, Konoha already had the upper hand. But it needed to be ensured for the long term. Of course, there would be injustice as the countries were going to be far from equal to the Leaf. But no matter how unfair it was, Kakashi believed that it would be better than letting more lives be wasted in another pointless bloodshed. Than letting children be used as soldiers and get killed. Than letting them turn into monsters the way Obito had …

The good part of this idea was that Konoha wouldn't have to dominate the world by force alone once all the goals of his plan would be accomplished. By creating an outer enemy in the face of Akatsuki, the Fire Country would willingly take the public initiative to become the leading force to fight them. None of the countries were ready to do it in their current economical state – in fact, even Konoha couldn't have afforded it if wasn't merely a gamble on their part. But since it was going to be under their complete control, it would be fairly easy to make the other countries believe that the allegedly most weakened by the last war Fire Country had solved the problem on its own, hence proving themselves far more powerful than the others, as well as justifying their ownership of the weapons in the faces of Naruto and Sasuke.

It would make them all think twice before deciding to say a word against Konoha's decisions.

On top of that, upon 'defeating' Akatsuki, with the help Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata and the others Konoha would be able to unite all the neutral and small countries together into one immense superpower that would be unbeatable even should all the other Great Countries forge an alliance against them.

And once it would be accomplished, they'd be forced to cooperate no matter what.

The Sixth knew that it sounded dangerous, perhaps even cruel. In fact, it was very close to the initial plan of Pain – his idea of attaining the monopoly on wars and ruling the world with the power of bijū. And if Hatake Kakashi still was just a regular shinobi, he'd probably be against the idea, just like he would be against any other on the matter, but as the Hokage, he realized that this truly was the only way they could ensure the peaceful future for the next generations.

The man suddenly flinched, being torn out of his thoughts as he noticed someone's presence nearby, just behind the open window. It felt familiar so he quickly recognized the man, but he didn't expect him to come to his office so soon.

 _Has something urgent happened ...?_

"Come in. You don't want to get spotted, do you?" the shadow hesitated for a second, but then silently slipped into the room, kneeling before the Sixth. The mysterious person was wearing a black loose overall, and his face couldn't be seen under its hood. The shadow clearly either didn't want or just not dared to speak up first, staying quiet as Kakashi was writing something on a scroll of paper.

"It's quite dangerous to come here with so many Hyūga patrolling the village. It would be very hard to explain why did you come to me like this, at this time," the Hokage finally said, not looking at the man.

"You're playing a very dangerous game yourself, Hokage-sama," he replied, purposely lowering his voice to hide the slightest irritation that still didn't miss Kakashi's ears.

The Sixth squinted at him, giving the shinobi an estimating look.

"True. But unlike you, it's my duty to do so."

"Is it? I don't recall any other Hokage ever intending to achieve exactly what the original Akatsuki failed at," the shinobi said calmly and it only made Kakashi sigh tiredly. This man was impressively smart.

"We've had this discussion before, didn't we? There's no other way. If you can see one, please, feel free to express your idea to me. You've seen how destructive the last war was, and I'd also seen the previous one. Tsunade-sama had seen the one before that, and she agrees, too. Such tragedy can't be allowed to repeat. Not if we have anything to say about it."

The shadow didn't reply, slightly lowering its head instead.

"I understand it. And you know I do. If anything, I had put my life in line to ensure the success of your plan long before the real deal has started. Not only that– "

"I know and appreciate everything you've done. But you know that it would unlikely be possible otherwise. Our plan still may very well fail. Like you've just said, it's a truly dangerous game indeed."

"I'm not doing this for you or the village, though. I'm not like _him_. I'm not as strong or smart. I want you to understand it clearly, too," the man blurted but quickly slouched, as if expecting Kakashi to hit him in response. "I apologize, Hokage-sama. I ... it's just–"

"Don't. You have all the rights to be displeased with this mess. Truth to be told, I'm quite unsure if it's even going to work out should something go wrong … after all, we'd overestimated Hinata's loyalty to the village. But regardless of her own feelings, I don't think there's any other way to ensure Sasuke staying by our side no matter what. He seems to genuinely care about her now according to what Orochimaru states in his report. We were very lucky that she had stumbled upon him back then – if she hadn't, I don't think there would be an opportunity for us at all."

The man slightly cocked his hooded head, and Kakashi could see him frown as his face got highlighted by the moon's shine.

"I never imagined that this position would make you so cynical, Hokage-sama. It's your own student we're talking about. Don't you feel ashamed by doing this to him?"

Kakashi let out a defeated sigh again, rubbing his eyes.

"I was spared of the choice the moment I accepted this mantle," he pointed at his cloak with the red 'Rokudaime' kanji printed on its back. "Besides, the time of sentiments is long gone. He's not a child anymore, and not even my student. If anything, from the certain point of view I could call myself _his_ student now, and the same goes to Naruto. Sasuke will have to endure it, and, well … I don't think he's going to be displeased with his destiny anyway. After all, he's going to have everything he could ever dream of – a clan to rebuild, a safe home to do so, a loving wife and many fights to win. No, I don't think he's going to become a problem for us."

"What if he finds out the truth, though?"

Hatake smiled and shrugged casually, finally putting the scroll aside.

"Then we'll all be at his mercy, I suppose. I don't think Naruto would support us in this case."

His mysterious interlocutor sighed himself, shaking his head.

"It's not even _dangerous_ , it's _insane_."

"You can't hope to achieve anything without risking something. Being a ninja always is all about risk, you of all people should have realized it by now."

The man finally raised from the floor, coming close to the window he had come through.

"I know, Hokage-sama. Perhaps I just don't really fancy the idea of getting killed by the very woman I love, especially if it can turn to be in vain. That's all."

Kakashi gave him a perplexed look as if trying to figure the shinobi out.

"I don't think it's going to come to this, to be honest," he replied after a short pause, looking as if he suddenly was able to see this man in a brand new light.

"I want it to be this way. It's for the better … of everyone," he sounded so obediently that his voice made Kakashi frown, actually wanting to comfort his subordinate somehow. If he still was just a jōnin ... if he wasn't the one who had led him to this, he'd probably offer the man to go and share a drink, as well as a long admonitory talk, but on the other hand … could it really be helped? Could such devotion even be shaken?

"I see. Well, I still advise you to think about it more and perhaps reconsider something while you're preparing for what's to come. There still is time, and besides, I really think you're wrong about her. She's not going to kill you, " he smiled, seeing as the man slightly flinched. "Hinata is better than that. Anyway ... go and rest for now. You really need it."

The shinobi hesitated for a few seconds, as if wanting to say something, but then he jumped out of the room without replying, disappearing in the darkness of the night street.

And just as he did so, the door to the office had opened and Shizune walked in, holding a bentō and a teapot on a tray.

"Sorry, Kakashi-sama, I couldn't get your favorite … the shops are really short on assortment this late, so … just some rice and meat," she smiled apologetically, coming close to the Hokage's desk.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about, Shizune … actually, I don't recall you eating anything today, so–"

"Oh …," the woman gasped, slightly blushing at his concern. "I was too busy with all the paperwork … thank you for asking, but I'll be alright, really. Some diet wouldn't–"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you if you'd like to join me for the dinner at my place. I'd like to enjoy your company without all the formalities. After all, we deserve a break from work once in a while, don't you think so?" he smiled, and she blushed even more.

"Uh … s-sure, Kakashi-sama," she gave him a sheepish smile in return, lowering her eyes.

"'Kakashi' is fine while we're free from duty. Let's go then," the Sixth finally crumpled the scroll and tossed it aside as he took the bentō and moved to the door.

Shizune, hesitating for a second as she felt a bit shocked by the sudden offer, reflexively lowered her eyes to look at the piece of paper.  
Her eyes widened. There was a drawing of a rabbit. It was simple, but there was some grace and beauty in the lines, so before the Hokage had a chance to turn around and see her, the woman quickly grabbed the picture and put it into her bag.

"S-sure, Kakashi," she smiled sheepishly, catching up with him.

* * *

Hanabi growled as she broke another tall oak with her palm, feeling too frustrated and bored. It was the third hour of waiting for the Akatsuki members to come to the rendezvous point on the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire. And while the now fourteen years old kunoichi knew that it could take a while for them to come to the place since she was early anyway, she still felt too excited and impatient to stand still, craving to finally see her older sister as well as the famous Uchiha. Little did she know that their meeting wasn't quite what the Sixth had meant when he'd mentioned that her mission was to assist the two Akatsuki members with whom she was familiar with...

That's why when the Hyūga finally noticed the silhouettes of the dark coats with red clouds on them looming on the horizon, her eyebrows cocked in surprise as she used her Byakugan under the cat muzzle-like ANBU mask to get a better look at the pair that was slowly approaching her.  
Not only these two weren't Sasuke and Hinata, but … it was the very man she'd had a clash with just few weeks ago back in Konoha. And the other one … it was a foreign blonde woman she'd never seen before. But wasn't that supposed to be someone she knew …? Sure, one could say that she was sort of familiar with Orochimaru, but the other one...

As a kunoichi and especially as an ANBU member, Hanabi wasn't the one to act recklessly or to let her emotions overpower her mind. That's why she only allowed herself to let out a small disappointed sigh, instantly retaining the self-control as she headed towards he two of them and slightly frowning as she studied their facial expressions.

Apparently the woman was pretty displeased with the sannin – her face looked ridiculously childish as she scowled, gazing at Orochimaru who was smirking devilishly and clearly felt amused, not replying to her tirade, but still listening carefully.

It took Hanabi a few minutes to approach the pair and jump in front of them out of nowhere.

"Greetings, Orochimaru-san … and you …," the Hyūga girl narrowed her eyes at the blonde, unsure how to address to her. Neither of them was wearing the typical forehead protector with the crossed symbol of their home village on it, so Hanabi had no idea what were the blonde's origins. The woman clearly didn't mind it though seeing as she completely ignored the girl's disrespectful gesture, still furiously peering at her partner.  
Hanabi had to silently commend their excerpt – neither of the Akatsuki members had shown any reaction upon her sudden appearance, and the Hyūga kunoichi always was very stealthy, so it was unlikely that they had noticed her beforehand.

More like they truly were powerful enough to not care at all.

"Oh … I should've expected Kakashi-kun to send _you_ to our aid when I asked him for someone with Byakugan. Although I'd rather prefer Hinata-chan to tag along … no offense to you, child, but this way I'd have a chance for this nuisance …," he smirked and nodded at the blonde whose face quickly reddened, "...to divert her attention to her instead of bothering me with her … ahem … excuse me, _his_ boring views. Honestly, Ashura … I'd had enough of these hollow talks with Jiraiya. Please, have some respect to your old sensei's friend and spare me of your jabbering."

Hanabi's eyes widened as she observed the blonde's angered face. It seemed like the woman was about to explode as she exclaimed,

"Whatever, you old creep! Sasuke had kicked your arse, Hinata could've beaten the crap out of ya too, and I'll surely do just that if ya keep trying to play around with my head! Mind your own business, 'kay? I don't care what ya do, just stay away from me with your weird ideas!" she rubbed her temples and winced , glaring at the sannin who laughed mockingly.

"Please … I've merely suggested a way to help your poor excuse of a personal life since you'd mentioned it anyway. You don't have to follow my advise, just keep it in mind, that's all. You underestimate the advantages your new jutsu provides you with–"

"I ain't gonna keep that shit in my mind, you freak! I'm not staying in this form permanently! I'm not dating Sasuke for fuck's sake!" she shrieked, shaking and pointing at Orochimaru, making Hanabi laugh under her mask against her own will. She didn't quite grasp what they were talking about and of course, these two weren't Sasuke and Hinata, but they were hilarious to watch nevertheless.

The sannin shrugged casually, raising his hands in defeat.

"Suit yourself. It was merely a friendly suggestion, no need to be mad over such a trivial thing. As the next Hokage, you might embarrass yourself in front of your future ANBU subordinates," he grinned and Hanabi's face blanched as she frowned, looking at the raging blonde thoughtfully.

 _The next Hokage …? Don't tell me …_

"Uzumaki Naruto? Is that you?" she asked bluntly, making the woman snort and form the Dog sign, turning into the familiar young blond jinchūriki.  
Her sister's former crush gazed at her with a bit of arrogance and irritation in the deep blue eyes.

"Yea, who else could it be? And who are you midget anyway?" he asked, clearly still being irked by Orochimaru's behavior.

And now Hanabi felt anger rising in her, too. So what if she wasn't that tall ...? She was a girl, she wasn't supposed to be tall anyway! If anything, she was nearly of Hinata's height by now, and unlike her sister, she still had a few more years to grow up a bit!  
Still, she couldn't show this dumb man any sign of her true emotions by any means. That wouldn't be very professional of her, after all.  
That's why it took Hanabi a second longer than usual to take the mask off her face, brushing the strands of her long brown hair with her palms and giving the blond shinobi a cold glare.

"Hyūga Hanabi. _Pleased_ to meet you," she snapped, moving her eyes to the sannin.

Naruto's face changed the instant he saw her face.

"Oh! So you're Hinata-chan's sister! I remember ya!" it seemed that the now cheerful Uzumaki didn't even realize how rude he had sounded just few seconds ago.

She gave him a short impassive glare.

"Really? On the contrary, I don't think I remember you very well. So, Orochimaru-san … my mission is to assist you in every possible way during this mission, but I was told that you are to inform me on the specifics. What are the orders?" she deadpanned, turning back to the sannin and deciding to ignore Naruto who now looked both pissed and baffled again.

The older shinobi giggled, and it looked a bit weird, especially knowing his reputation and his past. At the moment, he didn't seem like an extremely dangerous nukenin that he was at all, more like … a freak. The Uzumaki was right on this one.

"Oh, it's rather simple. Our task is to retrieve the tenth Akatsuki member, and you'll suit just perfectly for ..."

"Wha-a-a? This punk's gonna join us? Kakashi-sensei is totally nuts, I tell ya!" yelped Naruto as Hanabi's eyes widened in shock. She? An Akatsuki member? What a nonsense...

"With all due respect, Orochimaru-san ... to be honest, I don't think I'm powerful enough to be placed in league with shinobi like you, Sasuke-san or my sister …," she mumbled, making Orochimaru giggle once again.

"You didn't think so when you were about to attack me a few weeks ago, did you? Well, don't misunderstood, child. We only need your assistance in finding the last member, you're not going to become one yourself. That's why I've mentioned your Byakugan in the first place."

"Hey! I'm powerful too! What do they even teach you in the academy nowadays?" Naruto drawled, looking gloomy because of the apparent lack of respect on her side.

 _I guess he's already forgotten how's that when they refuse to acknowledge you._ _Serves him right..._

Despite the caustic thought, Hanabi let out a quiet sigh of relief. Sure, it would be quite a feat to join the group of the most powerful ninja alive, but the kunoichi truly didn't feel like she was ready for it. Perhaps in a year or two, if she managed to acquire the power of the Fifth Gate and to get a hold of her clan's kinjutsu … but not yet for sure.

"Oh, I see now. But why do you need the Byakugan, specifically? Wouldn't a sensory type be better for that job?" she asked, a bit confused.

"Not quite. Naruto-kun right here is sensory type, but I'm afraid that the man we're looking for has no chakra in his body right now, nor any emotions to radiate so that my partner would be able to spot him."

Hanabi frowned, confused by the Sannin's explanation. It didn't make sense at all. One couldn't just survive without chakra in his body, and the part about emotions … of course, contrary to what she'd said to him, Hanabi actually knew well enough who Naruto was, as well as the basics of his capabilities. If the man they were looking for could hide himself like that without even having any chakra, then his power level was supposed to be unrivaled. Surely he'd be able to hide from a mere Byakugan as well, wouldn't he …?  
Evidently Orochimaru didn't think so.

"Alright, but I still don't understand who we're talking about," she replied calmly, trying to hide the embarrassing confusion.

Orochimaru gave her a grim smile while Naruto was staring away with an insulted expression, trying to appear indifferent which looked quite comic in the current situation.

"It's an old member of Akatsuki who, fortunately to us, can't be killed, at least not by regular means. His name is Hidan. He had been buried prior to the latest war somewhere within the Nara Clan Forest not far away from Konoha. Once we get there, we need you to spot the exact place, and then to help us retrieve his remnants. Naruto-kun is going to restore his body, and then we must to take him back to the hideout so that Sasuke-kun can convince him to join Akatsuki once again."

The Hyūga gasped, looking at the sannin in disbelief. She'd read the files about the man named Hidan when she was going through the information concerning Akatsuki just a few hours ago. He was a complete maniac who also was responsible for the death of the Third Hokage's late son, Sarutobi Asuma. Why on earth would they need someone like him …?

But she quickly pulled herself together, throwing the indignant thoughts away. She wasn't in the position to question the decisions of the higher ranks. She was a loyal ANBU kunoichi, and she was going to stay on her duty no matter the orders.

That was her way of ninja, after all.

"I see," she finally said, turning around and starting walking in the direction of her home village. "And once we retrieve him, what's our next move?"

"You shall escort us back to Ame and stay there in the hideout, waiting for the orders from Kakashi-kun. I take it you're already informed about the operation that your clan is preparing?"

Of course, she knew about that. They were going to infiltrate Amegakure and to try to execute Hinata. Or rather to willingly walk into the trap set by the Sixth, herself and the Uchiha.  
And to die there, finally allowing her to become the head of the Hyūga clan. To free the enslaved Branch House for good and to get rid of the curse that's been there for centuries.  
To let her change everything.

And she was going to witness it all, so it seemed.

"I see," she smiled, somehow feeling that Orochimaru could easily read her now and that her excitement made him even more amused. What a twisted man … but was she any better considering what they'd planned for her own clansmen?

"We should hurry up and dig the bastard's grave already. I still have to patch him up, y'know, and it takes a lot of chakra. And my damned head's aching so much, I just wanna come back and have a good sleep …," the blond moaned, "And why couldn't we just take Kabuto in? Wasn't he from your bunch as well, eh?" he asked lazily, looking at the sannin.

Apparently he wanted her and Orochimaru to make haste, but no matter how shameful it was to admit, Hanabi was moving at her highest speed, and Orochimaru looked more less like he was doing the same thing … and it was a child's play for the jinchūriki who didn't seem even remotely tensed as they were jumping from one tree to another, judging by his totally bored expression.

Just how fast could he really be …?

"Kabuto is needed elsewhere. He might join us at some point, too, but not right now. As for your headache … you shouldn't have drunk that much, brat. I was surprised that you and Sasuke were even able to stand straight back in the evening. Considering how happy you were to see each other again, I might want to advice you to reconsider my idea about the two of you–"

"Oh, just shut up, you freak," Naruto growled, rolling his eyes. "It's just that it turned that Sasuke had actually found his relative, and we'd decided to ask the the guy to join us upstairs at some point … his story is pretty sad, y'know. But he's cool, and not a douchebag like Sasuke," he winced again, grabbing his head.

Hanabi quickly caught up with the blond, channeling some chakra into her fingers and then quickly striking him from behind while he was too preoccupied with moaning and mumbling, touching a few certain points on his nape and neck.

"Ow-w! What the heck do you think you're doin'?" he yelped, reflexively rubbing his neck and turning around, glaring at the girl.

"Your headache should be gone shortly. I've cleared your vessels and tenketsu to normalize the blood pressure and the chakra flow. You're welcome," she frowned, turning away.

His expression rapidly changed as he realized that she'd been right – he was feeling much better now, just a few seconds later.

"Wow, it really works! Thanks, Hanabi-chan!"

The girl had to fight the urge to slap the jinchūriki as she rolled her eyes at his sudden change of mood.

 _He is such an annoyance … I wonder why Hinata used to admire him so much ... hopefully it's different now,_ she thought, trying to concentrate on the thoughts about her mission.

The next few hours of their trip went relatively calm and silent. She was able to spot every shinobi within the radius of the safe zone around their group so they managed to avoid being noticed at all as they came close to the area where Hidan had been buried, finally making a stop in the middle of the deep forest.

"Hanabi-chan?" Orochimaru looked at her questioningly, clearly willing to receive her report.

"There are a few Nara clan shinobi patrolling this area, as well as one Akimichi and two Yamanaka, but they all are pretty far from us, and we haven't been detected by any of them yet. And just a few yards ahead of us is an invisible detecting barrier covering the whole place, similar to the one around Konoha, but obviously much weaker. Do you have a plan?" the ANBU asked, turning to the two shinobi.

"I guess it's your turn to shine, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru smiled, and for once the Uzumaki boy smirked as well at the man's remark, looking pretty proud of himself. Hanabi gasped as he took a kunai of unusual shape out of his holster.  
It had paper wrapped around its hilt. And the paper was covered with seals ...!

"Are you sure that the barrier won't detect this?" he asked, turning to the sannin.

Orochimaru nodded.

"Yes, I'm pretty certain. After all, no Nara can possibly expect anybody who's capable of using Hiraishin no Jutsu to infiltrate their territory all of sudden. They don't know you've mastered it, do they?"

 _Hiraishin …? The legendary jutsu of the Fourth and the Second? No way!_

Naruto smirked.

"Nah, I didn't tell anyone aside from Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and you. Alright! Let's go then!" he threw the kunai directly into the tree a few yards ahead of them, and, without any warning, the teen gripped their hands. Hanabi didn't really feel anything at all – the landscape around her just slightly changed within a split second before she could blink.

"Is … that it?" she mumbled, turning around to see the branch of a tree on which they had been standing just a second ago.

"Did you expect a show with fireworks or somethin'?" Naruto smirked complacently, looking full of himself which was no wonder - he had all the rights to be proud of his mastery of this incredibly complex technique. Now Hanabi really was impressed. Apparently he wasn't as dumb as he pretended to be, after all.

"Yeah, kind of … it's called 'Flying Thunder God', I obviously expected it to be more spectacular. Unfortunately it's as lame as you are," she grinned as the blond's face changed, reddening again.

He was too easy to mess with.

"Just fuck you, midget …," he grimaced, turning away.

"Not bad. Now we can at least be certain that you'll be able to deliver us back to Ame without accidentally leaving our limbs here," the sannin chuckled, turning to the girl. "Can you see him?"

Hanabi carefully looked around, trying to find anything resembling a tomb.

And there it was.

"A four o'clock," she said just a few seconds later, pointing in the correct direction. "The trees there are destroyed, seemingly by a huge explosion … and underground there is … oh …, "she gasped, frowning.  
A head that looked like it belonged to someone really hungry, buried along with a few pieces of his torn body, wasn't something that the Hyūga saw on regular basis. And on top of that, the head's nose was twitching as the person apparently still tried to breath – it seemed more like he did so out of habit since the man didn't need it to survive anyway.

"Is he still alive?" Orochimaru asked, looking a bit surprised. Did he not expect the man to be there?

"Yes, but he looks like–"

"Like shit, eh? Shikamaru told me that he'd exploded the guy's body, leaving only his head in there. Damn it, looks like I'm gonna waste all my chakra for that zombie … Sasuke's so paying my bills for putting me in the team with you creeps ..."

"Hey! I'm not a creep!" Hanabi bristled, gritting her teeth in anger.

"Nah, you're actually worse ..."

"Quit whining, kids. Let's go," Orochimaru jumped forward as the teens gave each other hateful glances, quickly following the sannin.

It didn't take them long to approach the location. Just a few minutes later they jumped down from the trees to see the improvised grave created by Nara Shikamaru long ago.

"So, how are we supposed to retrieve him? If we use anything that takes significant amount of chakra, we may get spotted," Hanabi whispered, keeping looking around for the possible guards.

"I'm afraid we have no choice but to use the most trivial way," Orochimaru smirked, touching the seal on his wrist – three shovels appeared out of it with the smoke cloud as he did so.

Both Naruto and Hanabi sighed resignedly, taking their tools and starting digging.

The girl wasn't sure how long did it take them to get deep enough – it seemed like a whole eternity, and they weren't even able to take a break to eat or drink something since there was a constant threat of being spotted. That's why she nearly danced in joy when the tip of Naruto's shovel finally hit something firm which for once wasn't a boulder, judging by the weak cry it let out.

"Who … the fuck … is … tha–"

"Long time no see, Hidan," Orochimaru sneered, gripping the head's gray hair and pulling it out of dirt.

Despite both of them being tired, hungry and sweaty, Hanabi couldn't help but silently commend Naruto's reaction as he quickly had turned back into his female older form Orochimaru called Ashura before Hidan could see him.

"Eh …? Orochimaru? You fuckin' bastard ... I'd never think that you'd be one to free me from here …," the head blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light of the slowly rising sun – it wasn't bright at all for them, but for someone who had been in complete darkness for a few months straight it actually was barely tolerable. "No way … you've returned to Akatsuki? Did you manage slay the Uchiha or something?" the head coughed, spitting out some dirt and trying to focus on the sannin's face, but then noticing Ashura and Hanabi who were staring at it with disgust. "I see we have some new members, eh …? I'm surprised that you fuckers actually have come after me. I was starting to think that Akatsuki was merely a group of hookers who–"

"Quite talkative nowadays, aren't you?" Orochimaru finally interrupted him, allowing Naruto in his female form to come closer. "Hold on with your tirade, Ashura right here is going to restore your body."

"Ashura …?" Hanabi noticed a glimpse of recognition in Hidan's eyes, and it seemed weird. As far as she knew, he had never even met Naruto in the first place, so how could he be familiar with his fake personality...?"

"Yes. Be quiet and let me heal you," it was beyond ridiculous to see Naruto's sudden change of behavior and manner of speech as he, or rather she approached the head, putting her palm on its forehead, turning to Hanabi and Sannin. "Be ready, I'll teleport us away as soon as his body is recreated. I doubt we're going to have a lot of time to leave," Ashura's hand lighted up with golden chakra, bathing Hidan's head and streaming down deeply underground, apparently connecting the head with the remnants of its owner's body.

It only took about ten seconds for the new flesh to appear out of the mass of warm chakra, being perfectly attached back to Hidan's head that now didn't even look as if he'd been on a hunger-strike all along.

"That … how did you …?" the maniac gasped, staring at the blonde with his purple eyes wide open.

"Later," the woman gripped the hands of Hidan and Hanabi, allowing Orochimaru to put his own palm on her shoulder as well.

And then they were already standing inside some foreign accommodation. It was an empty room without anything but a humble door at the entrance. Apparently it had never been used before, yet still Naruto had decided to put his seals in this exact place ... was it because it was unlikely to be visited by someone unexpected?

"Welcome the newcomers," the blonde gasped, falling to her knee and panting heavily.

Hanabi looked around, once again amazed by the sudden instant change of location before noticing that Naruto clearly was relatively low on chakra, which was surprising considering _who_ he was. But then again, he probably couldn't use his tenant's chakra since it was likely to blow the disguise, and using the Sage Mode required some preparation time, not to mention that it could mess his Henge in an unpredictable way.

"Na... Ashura-san, are you alright?" The Hyūga quickly jumped to the jinchūriki, offering a hand.

The woman smirked in return, accepting the help.

"Yes … it's just that it takes significant amount of chakra even to recreate a limb, let alone the whole body. And the teleportation was pretty draining as well considering the distance," she said, still breathing heavily as she stood up on her shaking legs.

Hanabi's eyes widened in understanding.

"Was that how you …?"

"Yes. Let's not talk about it, alright?" The younger girl nodded perplexedly, turning to Hidan and Orochimaru.

"Where are we anyway?" she asked, frowning. Of course, she already had some suspicions, but the girl just wanted to be certain.

"The Tower. That's how they call the current hideout," Orochimaru replied, glaring at the naked Hidan who apparently didn't even think about covering himself. "I believe we need to get a new set of uniforms," he smirked as he observed Hanabi finally noticing the other man's nakedness, but she reacted more stoically than the sannin had anticipated – she just turned away, turning off her Byakugan yet not even blushing.

"Yeah, you should …," she could see with the corner of her white eye as Ashura took her coat off, draping it over Hidan's broad shoulders. Apparently he didn't notice how the coat's size changed as she cancelled the transformation on it – the man was too busy with staring at his new hands, clenching the fingers.

"What … what kind of jutsu is that …?" he nearly whispered, moving his wide open eyes to the blonde.

"It's the power you're not capable of comprehending, Hidan. Just be grateful to Ashura for bringing you back to life," Orochimaru grinned, looking at the shocked man.

But apparently his temper quickly overpowered his amazement.

"Huh? Did you just call me stupid, bitch? I'm immortal anyway, so I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You better not provoke me, or I'll fucking murder you right on spot!"

"I'm afraid it's not possible, my explosive friend. I'm immortal, just like you and Ashura … as well as the current leader of the organization."

Hidan looked at him skeptically, and Hanabi's eyes widened in shock and horror. Immortal? It sounded just too unnatural. Fine with the sannin who already was creepy enough, but Naruto … and Sasuke …? How was this possible?

"Right … sure thing. Since when Pain is immortal anyway? Are you trying to fuck with me?" Hidan growled again.

Orochimaru chuckled. It seemed that he liked to taunt the man.

"Pain is long gone … the current leader's name is Indra. It's about time you meet with him–"

"Hang on," Hidan interrupted the sannin, turning to the two kunoichi. "Do you have any food? I'm hungry as fuck."


	18. High Tension

**Chapter 18. High Tension**

In their world, being a ninja surely gave one lots of assets without really adding any significant flaws. Sure, one could argue with that by saying that ninja constantly risked their lives, but come to think about it, it wasn't as dramatic as it could seem to a civilian.  
Comparing to regular people, even mediocre shinobi and kunoichi could be called invincible, perhaps even all-powerful. They could defy gravity, become invisible, change their appearane to turn into different people – and all that usually was in their arsenal ever since their childhood. Strong ninja could also stay without food, water or sleep for days, sometimes even weeks. Sure, for a _regular_ man it could seem like this mysterious supernatural power they called chakra turned those who learned to use it into nearly godly creatures. And the incredible self-control they always had didn't soften the impression at all.  
People feared ninjas, sometimes thinking of them like of some completely different kind to which human feelings, emotions and needs were foreign.

That's why if a regular human saw Uchiha Sasuke that morning, knowing everything about his power and capabilities beforehand, their stereotypes would immediately have got completely demolished the instant they took a look at the raven haired teen.

Even without seeing his reflection in the dirty mirror on the wall opposite to the bed, Sasuke already knew that he looked miserable. Not that he really cared about it – appearances never was something he valued much to say the least.  
What truly was bothering him at the moment were the few things which, on the contrary, a regular man would't find any surprising or even worthy of paying attention above everything else.

First of all, he wasn't alone in the bed. He could say that much without even opening his eyes as he felt someone's warm breath tickling his neck, as well as a gentle, soft palm against his bare chest exactly on the spot where he'd been stabbed by Madara months ago. Just above his heart.

On top of that, his own arm was wrapped around …

He moved it up and down to confirm his assumption, feeling the nice curve under his palm.

The Uchiha's eyes snapped open, and for the first few seconds he couldn't see anything clearly – his sight was too blurry which nearly made him panic, reminding him of the same view from the time when he didn't have Itachi's eyes implanted yet.

But then his sight slowly started to regain focus, finally making the teen able to recognize Hinata's peaceful face just few inches away from his own. She was still sleeping, and seeing as the girl was wearing only her underwear along with one of his own old black shirts with the Uchiha crest printed on its back, it became pretty evident to Sasuke that something had happened between the two of them after he'd left Naruto and Yutaka on the roof.

But the last thing he could remember from the morning was the sudden urge to go to sleep when they had opened the fifth bottle somewhere at the point when it was already hard to stand straight. Had he even had any energy to do … something to her?

Feeling his heart starting to race, the teen flinched as if finally breaking out of a weird genjutsu, quickly crawling away from the young woman and sitting on the broad bed on his knees. He stared at the Hyūga with something that was an extremely rare occasion to see on his face.

Uncovered and utter horror.

And just as he moved away, Hinata slowly opened her eyes, squinting and yawning at first, but then giving him a baffled look as she noticed the Uchiha's expression.

"Sasuke …? What's wrong?" she murmured, slightly raising her head up from the pillow.

"What did I do?" he barked, still staring at her as if she had just skinned a kitten right in front of him.

"Huh ...?" she gasped, confused by the question, but then starting to realize what was really going on, cocking her eyebrow and smiling playfully to him. "What are you talking about? You and Naruto were drinking until the noon, don't you remember...?"

"No. Not that. What did I do to you?" he deadpanned as his face was slowly becoming as pale as a list of paper.

"Oh …," she gave him a sly smile, stretching her body, "Don't worry about it, you were a perfect gentleman."

But then Hinata finally sneered, afraid that the Uchiha could've fainted at this rate.

"Well, not really. But you actually were pretty cute. Orochimaru woke me up a few hours ago to inform us that he and Naruto were leaving to get the tenth member, and since I'd been awakened anyway, I've decided to go and bring you some water. Kiba had told me once that it's really something one wants during hangover. By the way, it's there, on the table." She smiled caringly, nodding in the direction of the bottle.

But he didn't move, still staring at her suspiciously.

The Hyūga sighed, rolling her eyes. Who could've known that Uchiha Sasuke was so noble and caring under all his shells and masks?

"I hope you don't mind that I've borrowed your shirt. It had been rainy outside, so my clothes were completely soaked."

That wasn't entirely true, but she didn't want to bother Sasuke with the details of her short evening trip.

Fortunately enough, in his current state that was enough to convince the Uchiha, so she smiled warmly seeing as he slowly turned around to grab the bottle only to completely devour the refreshing liquid hungrily within just a few seconds.

"Do you have more?" he asked then, slightly turning his head.

"No … it wasn't that easy to get this one, and I wasn't sure how much you were going to need anyway. Is it that bad?" she asked worriedly, giving him a pitiful look.

"Hn." He turned away, putting the empty vessel back on the table and then suddenly hissing, grabbing his temple with his fingers.

Hinata sighed, activating the Byakugan and crawling closer to Sasuke. She frowned, lightly tapping his neck from behind which made him flinch and glance at her cautiously.

"Shush … I'm going to help it, sit still," she ordered, making the Uchiha frown. He both enjoyed and disliked the bossy notes in her voice at the same time so he slightly recoiled reflexively, unsure how to react.

"I don't need any help, I'm fine–"

"I said sit still," she gently whispered in his ear, lightly pushing on his shoulders to make the obstinate teen finally relax and let her do the job, to which he reluctantly agreed more because of the shudder the feeling of her warm breath and her soft touch suddenly gave to his body.

It didn't take Hinata long to do whatever she was up to – apparently she already had done the same thing to her teammates in the past. The thought made Sasuke feel some weird kind of displease that was pretty much foreign to him, and he didn't really understand what it was.  
Perhaps he was feeling a bit jealous at the idea of her treating Kiba and Shino in the same way, but the Uchiha certainly didn't feel like deepening into reflecting on his feelings at the moment anyway. The feeling of absolute bliss completely overwhelmed him as the terrible headache miraculously disappeared within just a few seconds.

"Is it better now?" she asked, though already knowing the answer as well as knowing that he wouldn't reply anyway. After all, she knew him better than anyone else at this point.  
Of that both of them were absolutely sure.

And so he simply turned away again, activating a seal on his wrist to get a fresh shirt and getting up from the bed, wincing slightly as he stretched his stiff muscles.

"What really happened to you while I was asleep?" he suddenly asked, not looking at the young woman.

She frowned. He could read her with such ease now ... but that wasn't really any surprising. He knew her better than anyone else, too.

"I … well, Orochimaru woke me up and then ..."

* * *

Flinching at the sudden knock, Hinata slowly opened her eyes and activated her Byakugan.

She frowned. Behind the door stood Orochimaru who looked as vigorous and imperturbable as usual. _Did he even ever sleep at all ...?_ It was only close to sunset, and he already seemed completely rested. _What a weird man._  
And next to him was Naruto … in his female form, and even under the effect of his perfect _Henge no Jutsu_ he looked horrible. And judging by the way Ashura was glaring at the sannin, the jinchūriki wasn't amused by the early awakening either to say the least.

Orochimaru knocked again, a bit louder this time which made his companion wince, so Hinata decided to get up and come out to them before another knock could disturb Sasuke's sleep.  
But that wasn't a trivial task considering that she was being hugged tightly by the Uchiha's arm.  
Fortunately enough, his condition made Sasuke pretty oblivious to what was happening around him, being deep in his sleep unlike the usual, so she somehow managed to slowly slip out of his grip without waking the young man up.

Quickly coming to the door, she opened it, quietly walking outside.

"Hinata …?" Orochimaru made a surprised face, "I thought it was Sasuke's room. Was I wrong, or ...?" Now it was clear that the sannin was simply messing with her, though it was pretty obvious even with the tiny amount of knowledge about him that she possessed thanks to the Uchiha.

"He's asleep. Can I help you?" she asked, annoyed by the man's attitude, but even more so by the fact that he had forced her to get out of her comfortable nap in Sasuke's warm embrace, making her walk out into the draft of the cold corridor.

"Not much. We just wanted to let him know that we're going after Hidan so it may take us a while to get back. Right, Naruto-kun?" he smirked at Ashura who glared at him melancholically, apparently hardly following the sannin's words.

"Yea, yea ... whatever you say," the jinchūriki mumbled, leaning against the wall and letting out a heavy sigh.

Orochimaru chuckled, turning back to Hinata who gave him a deadpan look.

"Is that it?" she asked, moving her eyes to Ashura and barely holding a grim smirk.

Apparently they really had drunk quite a lot in the morning. Of course, the Hyūga could probably help him with the hangover, but somehow she didn't feel like doing so. Perhaps because she knew that Sasuke hadn't planned anything like that so it had most likely been Naruto's idea to get wasted to begin with.

 _It kind of serves him right, doesn't it?_

"Yes, pretty much. Tell that to Sasuke if he wakes up before we're back, will you?" It irked the Hyūga how evident was the fact that the sannin was simply having fun with them in this situation, but she wasn't going to amuse him any further.

It wasn't that she disliked Orochimaru. In a way, she actually felt sympathy for the man – after all, he was Sasuke's former teacher and he had saved her own life, not to mention the power he had given her. And even putting all that aside, he also was a brilliant, perhaps even genius scientist, and Hinata always respected intelligent people no matter who they were.  
But he surely could be incredibly annoying. And she wasn't going to play along, at least not this time.

"Fine, it will be done", she snapped, turning around and closing the door behind her back.

Deactivating the Byakugan, Hinata came close to the small table near the bed where Sasuke was snorting calmly. Leaning against the wooden surface of the furniture, she stared at him, unable to resist the urge to smile.

For once he looked so peaceful in his dreams … it was a rare occasion for the Uchiha to sleep so well. Usually he could be awakened by the slightest sound, and during their long journey together Hinata had found out that he also often had nightmares which made him talk asleep, sometimes even scream in terror.  
That's why she was so happy to see him like this, careless and peaceful for once, and that also was another reason for her to be a bit mad at Orochimaru for risking this precious idyll by knocking on their door.

 _Our door … I can get used to it,_ thought Hinata distantly, slightly blushing at the idea.

She suddenly felt the strong urge to do something good for him. Sasuke usually was pretty reluctant to accept anything, especially if it was about helping him with something in any way, but still … he gave her the feeling of comfort she always lacked throughout her entire life. With him, she actually felt like she was at home. Safe.

Warm.

And then the idea hit her. When he would wake up, he'd certainly want something to drink. And since she was already up anyway, what if she went for a short trip around the village, buying him something on her way? After all, she didn't feel sleepy anymore. Her hands were already back to normal, and all that remained to completely negate the damage she had received from Kyūbi would be painting her nails again.

Looking at her fingers made her frown, but then the girl suddenly smiled.  
Just half a year ago she barely cared about her appearance at all. But after her last birthday Hinata actually had begun to find making herself look better rather enjoyable, thanks to Sasuke's present.  
She wanted to appear good and beautiful now. Not only for the Uchiha, but for herself as well. And cosmetics surely played a big role there.

But dressing up came first.

Quietly taking her worn old clothes that she had used for the night off, she tossed them into the trashcan in the corner of the room, though watching carefully for Sasuke to not wake up – even though she wasn't really afraid of the possibility of him seeing her naked, it would be pretty awkward given the current circumstances. After all, she imagined it to be more … romantic than that, so the girl quickly got dressed into the new set of female Akatsuki outfit. A pale blue top with open shoulders and abdomen, tight pants of the same color that reached her ankles along with simple sandals with heels, finishing with a familiar black coat with red clouds on it.  
Taking a look at her reflection in the mirror, the Hyūga smiled, feeling satisfied as she fixed her hair.

It didn't take her long to apply the cosmetics. After finishing her makeup with the dark red lipstick and painting her nails with matching blood colored polish, instantly drying it with her fire chakra, she came close to their bed again, making sure that Sasuke was still asleep. Apparently the Uchiha wasn't going to get up anytime soon, so Hinata quietly moved out of the room, closing the door and coming close to the window at the end of the long corridor.

Being a kunoichi, she didn't need to waste her time on looking for an exit somewhere downstairs, straying in the vast labyrinth of different passages and rooms, so she simply jumped out, landing on the small platforms and pipes that bulged out of the massive building here and there until she finally landed on the solid ground of the street.

There was a surprisingly low amount of people around even though it wasn't late yet – the sun was still lighting the streets of the village. But even those who were around the Tower instantly noticed the young woman, unsure how to react to her sudden appearance.  
The voices quickly lowered to whispers and then died off shortly. Every single person around was staring at her as if expecting Hinata to make a speech or to start ordering them around.

Frowning, she wiped the dust off her coat, trying to maintain the impassive expression as she slowly walked down the broad cobblestone road. Her eyes were sliding over the signboards, looking for a grocery of some sort as she was trying to ignore the reaction her appearance was causing to people on the street.

It was uncomfortable, though. Very much so, actually, considering that she'd never received so much attention before in her life. If this would've been happening to her old self, to that fragile girl who had run away from Konoha, overwhelmed with fear of the man who probably wouldn't even be able to lay a finger on her nowadays … she likely would've fainted the instant she noticed all the stares they were giving her.

But now things were completely different.

Hinata truly didn't care what they thought of her because for all she knew, not only she was an elite kunoichi successfully executing a top-secret S-rank mission now, but she, Hyūga Hinata, was also a member of Akatsuki, whether it was a bluff or not. Thanks to Sasuke, she had managed to reveal her true potential. Now the young woman knew who she really was, and _nobody_ would be able to confuse her ever again.  
She wouldn't allow it, especially now that she had even withstood that talk with Naruto, finally feeling completely free from her past as they'd settled everything between them.

The Uchiha was right – it had been her final challenge, and she had passed it with ease, which finally allowed her to concentrate on her main goals – making Sasuke happy and being happy herself.

Of course, there was much more to it. The most important thing above everything else was protecting the remnants of his clan as well as securing the safety of Konoha in order to ensure their own future.  
Now that she gave it a thought, Hinata didn't have much warm feelings for her home village. Sure, there were a few people she still cared about – Kiba, Shino, Kurenai, Naruto. But aside from that … she could easily go to live with Sasuke wherever he would decide to settle down, feeling herself absolutely comfortable. Paying her remaining friends, her former sensei and her sister occasional visits once a year or two would be more than enough to satisfy her nostalgic feelings.

She had a different life now, after all. She had become a different person.

Hinata smiled as the still a bit chilly March wind whipped her hair, enjoying the sunlight warming her face as she came close to the door that led to one of the plain stores that looked unpopular enough to not draw more unnecessary attention.

Raising her hand to open the rickety wooden door, Hinata flinched, realizing two things at the same time as she touched the rusty door handle.

First, she didn't have any money with her.  
And second ... they were going to create the rings Indra had told the villagers about only once the tenth member would arrive.

In other words, if anyone noticed her not wearing the ring right now, it would be the same as getting an aim on her head.

And ironically so, just as the realization hit her, making the girl scowl at her own stupidity, she heard a loud hemming to her right.

Slowly turning her head to face the possible threat, the Hyūga frowned.

 _So they took his words_ _ **this**_ _serious? What a damned nuisance ..._

"Can I help you?" she asked the five shinobi politely, not really sure how she was supposed to behave in front of her ... subordinates? Or rather a bunch of insane bigots with no real allegiance to anyone?

"Show us your other hand," the tall man in the middle barked, staring at her with his empty brown eyes. Apparently he was their commander, or at least he had the authority to speak up first.

Letting go of the door, she turned to face them strictly, giving the bunch an impassive gaze. She couldn't call them anything else since they looked more like a mere group of bandits than a ninja unit.

 _What to do now …?_ she questioned herself, noticing that she wasn't feeling worried about herself at all – in fact, she was pretty confident in her ability to eliminate all of them should it become necessary. But the problem was that hurting the villagers could ruin their entire plan. Something else needed to be done, and she had to make the decision as fast as possible.  
But before Hinata could figure it out, the words came off her mouth on their own,

"You need to watch your tone if you don't want to die right away, filth."

Feeling both awed and a bit frightened by her own sudden courage and insolence, Hinata still somehow managed to keep her calm mask up.

She couldn't remember herself calling someone filth ever before, but these men …

Hinata and Sasuke had seen many different people during their mission in this weird village. Some of them were truly awful to say the least. Some were decent – for instance, Jun was an irritating idiot without a doubt, but he still was a _person._ He had his own views, his own goals, even his own dignity … well, in a way.  
And he certainly was no fool.  
Now she could truly understand the man's deep despise whenever they were talking about the locals.

These shinobi, however … being mindless fanatics and approaching her like this as if they didn't even remotely care about their lives. Bluntly risking to get killed only to check the presence of some ring on her finger, even though most likely realizing that whether she was an Akatsuki member or an intruder powerful and cocky enough to impersonate herself as one just few hours since 'the god's arrival' ... she felt like they really deserved to be despised.

 _But then again_ …, the girl frowned. Why did she even care in the first place?

They feared her. It was clearly visible deep in their eyes – apparently such people could only be controlled by force. They already could feel her power, but in spite of it they still refused to even apologize as she'd put their leader in his place.

Mindless animals, that's who they were.

 _Filth._

"Kami-sama said you need to wear the ring for us to consider you his angel. Otherwise you will die," the leader of the bunch replied stubbornly, looking at her with his empty eyes. He seemed to be the most brainless out of them, tightly followed by the other one that stood next to him and nodded at his words; the other three looked away, sweating and clearly feeling pretty uncomfortable.  
Apparently some of them could at least _think_ , after all. Perhaps she wouldn't have to hurt all of them.

"Do you realize that I'm going to kill you for your impudent attempt to humiliate me like this, whether I have the ring on me or not?" she asked calmly, staring at the man without blinking.

It all was up to him now. His reply would seal his fate.

"Yes. I do. I don't care. Kami-sama is watching. Always watching. I'm his obedient slave, and I will follow his will to my death," he deadpanned, not moving his eyes away for a second.

Hinata could feel her body beginning to shake as she was overwhelmed with fury.

 _How?_ Just _how_ could one simply give his life up for his ridiculous beliefs when it was _obvious_ that his 'sacrifice' would end up being a waste in either case?  
She simply couldn't believe that people like this existed in this village. Moreover, they seemed to dominate those who tried to oppose this idiocy. And to think that they actually drew normal people along with them into their madness …

This dirt needed to be wiped off the face of Ame if they truly wanted to fix everything here.

Infusing her fists with chakra, the young woman nearly gasped in surprise – the main bigot, as she called him now in her head, had actually beaten her to it by quickly weaving a few signs.

Before Hinata could step away, the immense wave of water already was just in front of her.

 _Hakke K_ _ū_ _sh_ _ō_ _!_

She repelled it with her Vacuum Palm, but a bit too late for it to be a perfect counter – unfortunately the Hyūga was able to cover only the upper part of her body while the lower part of her coat got completely soaked as well as her pants, making her feel even more angry. Now she was going to need to dry it for she didn't have another set of clothes prepared.  
Someone was going to pay …

Before the man could react, she used Shunshin to get close to him, raising her hand to pierce his skull with a bone. But just a split second before the deadly attack reached its target, something triggered in Hinata's head and she stopped the attack midway, striking the tenketsu on the man's neck instead.

He fell on his knees, unable to use chakra properly anymore. Apparently the shinobi of Amegakure were really poorly trained ever since the downfall of the original Akatsuki.  
She glared at his face thoughtfully, seeing that none of his subordinates were brave enough to attack her. They just gazed at the young woman with utter fear and idolatry at the same time.

Hinata didn't really know why, but it only made her anger strengthen even more. But she wasn't going to simply kill them. Doing so would turn them into martyrs in the eyes of the villagers.  
No, they needed to see how wrong they really were.

"So you truly think that your god would approve you giving up your life like this? And for what? For a futile attempt to–" She stopped, meeting his stubborn, empty gaze.

"I'm only following the will of god. My life is irrelevant."

She punched him in the face, making the man fall down to the ground, reflexively covering his broken, bleeding nose.

"If it wasn't important, you stupid bigot, he wouldn't have sent us here in the first place. We are to protect you. To make you open your eyes at last. To lead you in that bright future you've been promised! You must value your lives if you want to make it happen! Not just blindly follow someone's words, frankly following them without any thinking!" she yelled, feeling herself unusually infuriated.  
Perhaps she was feeling something familiar that she was afraid of herself? Something from her past, some sort of blind loyalty and admiration she herself once felt?

Whatever the reason was behind it, she didn't want to think about it at the moment.

"B-but what can we do?" the other man finally opened his mouth, afraid to look her in the eyes, "You've seen him, didn't you? The god … he's our only hope," he mumbled, lowering his head and gripping his kunai tightly.

Hinata growled, coming close to him and grabbing his collar with her slender fingers. He was young – perhaps just a bit older than her, but the difference wasn't really notable. After all, her makeup made the Hyūga look a older than she was.  
Yet still, she suddenly felt like she was treating a silly, lost child.

" _You_ are your only hope. Remember it well. Your god is going to show you the right road, but he's not going to walk it instead of you."

He snapped his eyes to meet hers, looking at Hinata with shock and … prayer?

"Are you really his angel?"

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the question. So helpless and naive … just how come their village hadn't ended up in ruins yet? Probably only thanks to the Pact.

"I'm his woman, not an angel. And trust me, I know what I'm talking about. He has shown me that road, and I'm walking it now myself."

His eyes widened, and so did the others' – even their leader whose nose she had just broken was staring at her in awe and shock.

"So you are the goddess ...?"

Hinata desperately fought the urge to slap her face, feeling more frustrated than angered now. They truly were just like children, after all.

But on the other hand, that could be some good practice for her. She was to become a mother one day, wasn't she?  
The ridiculous context of the thought somewhat calmed her down, nearly making the Hyūga chuckle.

"I guess you could say so ..." She sighed, deactivating the Byakugan. They weren't ready for the truth, but at least they would leave her alone now. "Now get out of my sight. And tell your comrades to not mess with Akatsuki no matter what. Especially with me. I'm going to kill you if I see you behave like this again." She scowled, making the five of shinobi pale. Apparently her little bluff worked out nearly perfectly. Well, not entirely so – instead of running away, they dropped to their knees, lowering their heads.

"Yes, my goddess!" the chorus of their voices echoed through the street, making Hinata want to roll her eyes again.

"Whatever … just get lost," she mumbled, turning away and entering the store at last.

Just as it looked from the outside, the interior wasn't any better. There were a few dusty shelves mostly with conserved food on them, as well as a few boxes filled with bottles of water - exactly what the Hyūga was looking for.

An old woman stared at her as if Hinata was a ghost when the bell above the door rang, making the Hyūga frown once again. These villagers and their reactions certainly were going to drive her insane ...

"Can I borrow some water, please? I don't have any money with me right now, but I really need it, so–"

The woman that apparently owned the store bowed down, quietly uttering,

"Of course, my mistress. Please, take whatever you need, just … I'm begging you, don't kill me or my family. We didn't do anything, we're just simple people–"

Hinata winced, coming closer to the showcase and picking a bottle.

"I'll do no such thing. I'll make sure to pay for this the next time I'm around. Thank you very much." She smiled kindly, making the old woman stare at her in utter shock. Apparently they totally weren't used to such attitude coming from the upper ranks of the village ... especially from the previous line up of Akatsuki.

Desperately fighting her own emotions and trying to not accidentally scare the poor old lady, Hinata turned on her heels and left the store, not looking back.

* * *

"Is that it?" asked Sasuke, lazily fixing his hair and washing his face with a splash of cold water he had conjured with his chakra.  
Seeing him doing that so casually, Hinata felt pretty stupid for a moment, only to realize a second later that there probably was nothing to be ashamed of. After all, seeing as he had played along, even asking her if she had any more water for him, he seemed amused by her care.

"Pretty much. I still think we should do something about them. These people are so miserable, Sasuke ..." She lowered her eyes, wanting to express all of her impressions over her short yet eventful adventure outside, but unable to find the right words.

He turned his head to face the young woman, eyeing her thoughtfully.

"It can't be helped any time soon. This is going to take a while, especially now that we have Kusagakure to deal with. As well as all the other things."

She gave him a weak smile, nodding in agreement.

"I know. I just wanted to ask you to help these people at some point if it's even possible. After all, you of everyone else–" She gasped, meeting his eyes that were now just few inches away from hers.  
He always was so fast … no matter how much she had advanced, the Hyūga still felt that she was nowhere close to being a match for him.

"I don't care about them. They are free to believe whatever they want to believe. Changing their paradigm doesn't concern our mission here." She lowered her eyes in defeat, partly expecting this answer, yet still unable to hold the curious expression as he touched her chin gently, making Hinata raise her head to meet his cold and impassive gaze again. "We're going to be too busy with the things we're having at hand. Although … since _you_ are asking for it ...," she gasped quietly in surprise, feeling his lips touch her own, making the girl want to cuddle him senseless as she heard his last line, "I'll try to figure something out. If we'll have time for it, that is." The corners of his mouth twitched, giving away the tiniest of smiles.  
Hinata squeaked happily, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging the Uchiha as tightly as she could.  
But apparently he didn't expect such emotional reaction of her. She was only able to catch the small glimpse of surprise in his eyes before they lost their balance, falling onto the bed.

Grave silence fell upon the room. His mismatching eyes were open wide just like her own white ones as Hinata was sitting on top of the teen with her hands against his bare chest. The girl was afraid to move as her cheeks were slowly reddening at the realization of the position she found the two of them being in.  
Being caught off guard, she got completely lost in his deep eyes. Was it some kind of his genjutsu? If this was the case, then it certainly was a very pleasant one. It seemed to her like the whole eternity passed before the kunoichi suddenly flinched, feeling his hand touch her bare hip.

And then something inside of her just broke, mercilessly throwing her into the undiscovered realm of desires. Hinata leaned forward, kissing him so desperately and hungrily as if her life depended on it. Perhaps it actually did? Why was she feeling so _alive_ now when her tongue met his, feeling his arm slide under her shirt at the same time ...

Hinata couldn't think straight as her body melted under his touch, but one thing she could say for sure – she had just passed the point of no return. Whatever he did to her now, she wouldn't be able to resist him. Not that she wanted to anyway … if anything, the Hyūga now realized that she craved for his touch more than for anything else in her life. All the other things suddenly became insignificant ... completely irrelevant. Her entire world was focusing in this one man, tossing away everything else.

It became more clear than ever before.

She loved him, and she couldn't imagine living without him anymore.

After avoiding each other for so many long, frustrating weeks, both of them felt like they finally managed to break out of the chains that had been binding them up to this very moment. And now that they finally let go of their restrains, Hinata felt like she was completely losing control over herself, feeling his hot lips against her deer neck and his arm on …

She let out a quiet moan of pleasure as he gently squeezed her breast, making the young woman feel something she had never experienced before.

The passionate desire to belong to him.

She didn't realize it before how much she really needed this man. And seeing as he wanted her just as badly made Hinata so overwhelmed with her feelings that the girl's brain decided to simply shut down, allowing her body to act on its own.

"Hinata–," he gasped, slightly pushing her away. Sasuke wasn't even sure if she could comprehend his word now seeing bleary the look of her eyes. And to be honest, it took the Uchiha all of his remaining willpower to stop just for a second, but he had to do that. He would lose his self respect if he didn't.

"I can hardly control myself now. Are you sure– "

She didn't let him finish his question, shutting her raven haired lover up with another passionate kiss.

 _Well, at least I tried,_ he thought reasonably, losing the remaining bits of rationality as he felt her fingers reach out for his belt.

* * *

"Are you sure he won't kill someone while we are absent? He seems to be quite unstable, if you ask me. And from what I know of him, he's a complete maniac–"

"Nah, it's all good. Did you even see how he swallowed that steak? Even if he gets sated soon, which I doubt, he's going to eat so much that it's gonna be hard for him to move. I know what I'm talking about, believe it!" Ashura smirked as the two of them were passing one ladder after another on their way to Sasuke's room, the jinchūriki walking slightly ahead of the Hyūga.

Hanabi cocked her eyebrow skeptically, frowning at the blonde. It was fairly obvious that both him and Orochimaru were hiding something concerning Hidan. Why did they even need him to begin with? There had to be a very good reason to recover such a shinobi, especially knowing that he had killed a Sarutobi Asuma as well as numerous other good ninja of Konoha. Of course, it was a bit hypocrite to judge him - the Uchiha had killed some of Konoha's ninja as well, but unlike Hidan he had been legitimately pardoned by the Gokage Council.  
On top of that, apparently whenever there was no foreigners around, Naruto's usual personality naturally began to pop out since there was no reason for him to keep the mask up.

"Could you please turn back into yourself? It's not like he's going to see you anytime soon anyway," Hanabi mumbled, reluctant to admit that she still felt awkward while he was in his female form, especially like this when Ashura behaved so much like Naruto. It was confusing and irritating.

"Huh? Oh, yea, sure," the jinchūriki quickly turned back into the man she was a bit more familiar with, this time not even forming any seals which impressed her once again. Just how was it possible for such a prodigy to be an idiot at the same time ...?

He turned his head to wink at the girl, grinning, "We're almost there. Just a few more floors, I think …" Naruto scratched his nape, stopping on a staircase and looking around perplexedly.

"Do you even know where we're going? Seems to me like we're lost," remarked Hanabi, crossing her arms on her chest and frowning.

"Hey! I'm not stupid, you know! It's just that we've arrived here only yesterday, and we've decided that we are not to use any kind of tracking jutsu inside the Tower. To give each other privacy or something like that, y'know."

Hanabi rolled her eyes.

"So we _are_ actually lost … brilliant. I can't believe it. I should've gone to look for Hinata outside instead." She shook her head, though not really regretting following the Uzumaki. Even though that beautiful red haired girl with glasses had told them that Hinata had gone outside some time ago and that she hadn't seen her sister return yet, Hanabi didn't really fancy walking around a foreign village full of ... gods know what types of people.  
Especially not wearing the forehead protector with Konoha's symbol on it.

"Right! I remember now, okay? This way!" He grinned cheerfully, storming into one of the corridors to his right.

Letting out a loud, tired sigh, she quickly followed the knucklehead that was to become their Hokage one day. Sometimes it was incredibly hard to believe that such a guy had played the key role in winning the Fourth Great Ninja War, but then he always managed surprised her with some incredible technique she never hoped to master herself.

 _What an impossible man ..._

At least she was going to see the famous Uchiha soon enough. When they had met a few months ago prior to Hinata's birthday, he seemed to be pretty intelligent unlike Naruto, making a good impression on her. Meeting him was going to be some relief at last.

But then something strange happened, making the girl strain. After about ten seconds of quick walking and trying to catch up with the blond, Hanabi could've sworn that she heard someone moan.  
Was it just her imagination …? Apparently the the Uzumaki didn't hear anything seeing as he kept striding forward confidently, finally stopping near one of many wooden doors and gripping the door knob.  
Pulling it without any hesitation, he stepped inside the room.

But then he did something Hanabi would've never expected of him.

The blonde rapidly paled, slamming the door behind him and leaning his back against the wooden surface with an absolutely ridiculous expression on his blanched face.

"What's wrong …?" Hanabi mumbled, gazing at him suspiciously.

"Eh ... it's nothin'. Let's get outta here. Quickly," he hissed, slowly moving away from the door on his tiptoes, clearly afraid to make another sound.

Something was seriously off there. First the strange sounds, and now this … just what was going on in this damned place?

"What? But why …?" she muttered perplexedly, deciding to activate her Byakugan nevertheless. After all, she wasn't a part of their agreement of privacy …

But then she realized that using her dōjutsu wasn't necessary, jumping up at the sudden infuriated scream,

"I'LL FUCKING MURDER YOU, DOBE!"

"Run!" Naruto yelped, rushing away from the door, but it was too late – the enraged Uchiha appeared out of nowhere just in front of him, slamming his fist into the blond's abdomen and making him fall on his bum, covering his head with his hands.

"Come on, Sasuke! I didn't see anything, I swear! I didn't know–"

"Didn't they teach you to knock, you retard?" Sasuke growled, gripping his embarrassed friend's collar and raising him up.

That was when Hanabi who still stood there, absolutely shocked, finally noticed that the raven haired man was shirtless, and the belt on his pants was unfastened. What the heck was he doing there ...?

"K-Karin told us that she's outside! How the fuck could I know?!" apparently Naruto finally managed to pull himself together, dodging another punch and pushing Sasuke away.

"Are you trying to tell me that you didn't sense her? Don't you dare feeding me with this bullshit, dobe!"

"How the fuck was I supposed to sense her? We've agreed to not use any tracking stuff inside the building, have ya forgotten?" Naruto clenched his fists, beginning to blush terribly.

Sasuke blinked awkwardly as his expression quickly changed into a baffled one.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What you yourself have suggested yesterday on the roof, ya dumbass! And we all agreed, remember? Come on, you weren't _that_ drunk yet, were ya?"

Before she could somehow react to their ridiculous dialogue, the young kunoichi flinched once again as the door slowly opened, making the girl snap her head to her left and gasp in surprise.

"H-Hinata …?" she nearly whispered, staring at her older sister whom she hadn't seen in months.

But now it seemed more like years, because she sure had changed a lot. Her hair was now much shorter than before, only reaching a bit past her shoulders. On top of that, apparently she had decided to start using cosmetics which made her look even more mature and stunning, even though she was standing there on her bare feet … wearing only an Akatsuki coat?

But what really drew Hanabi's attention above everything else was her face. Never before she had seen her beloved sister looking so mad. If anything, the Hinata she knew had never even got angry at someone … and now she looked absolutely murderous quite like Sasuke, if only a bit calmer than him.  
So unlike herself …

And she was looking directly at her, making the younger sister swallow hard.

"Hanabi … what are you doing here?" she deadpanned, wrapping her coat more tightly.

"W-well … a lot of things have happened. I'm sorry, nē-chan, I didn't mean to interfere, it's just that Naruto–"

"Naruto, huh ...? I should've guessed," Hinata slowly turned her head to look at the blond who was seemingly trying to incinerate the confused Uchiha with his eyes.

However hearing her calling out his name Naruto turned around as well, paling once again as he met Hinata's icy gaze.

"Oh, crap … not you too, Hinata-chan … I'm so screwed," he moaned, although lowering his hands in defeat.

Hanabi couldn't help but smirk at that. Was he accepting the inevitable?

"That you are …," Hinata quietly uttered, stepping out of the room, "Why did you bring Hanabi here?"

"It's a long story!" both Naruto and Sasuke replied simultaneously, giving each other scowling glances.

The younger Hyūga swallowed hard again as she saw her sister's eyes narrow at their words.

"I believe all of you owe me a good explanation. Seeing as she's here now and since you were so insolent to break into our room without knocking, Naruto, I can only assume that father finally had made his move. Did they infiltrate Ame?" she asked, crossing her arms on her chest and frowning.

It was so unusual to hear Hinata speak in such a bossy manner, not stuttering at all anymore ... it seemed like even her voice had changed a bit, sounding less squeaky than before.

"Well, not exactly …," Hanabi replied quietly, making Hinata shoot a suspicious glance at her. "But it truly is a long story, nē-chan. And they don't have anything to do with that, I swear! Don't be mad at them!" she babbled, shivering at the unwonted cold look her sister was giving her.

Such drastic change in her attitude … was it all thanks to Sasuke's influence, or more because of what their father did to her …?  
Probably both. But it only made the resolve of the young kunoichi strengthen. Once again she had been assured of the simple truth – Hyūga Hiashi needed to die.

And she, Hanabi, was going to be the one to end his life.

"We'll see …," Hinata finally uttered after a few seconds of thinking, turning around and entering the room again. "Get in. You two, stay away for a while. I want to talk to her in private." She gazed at Hanabi, apparently expecting her to follow.

The younger sister let out a heavy sigh, giving one last look to the teens who were still standing there, but the way they glanced at each other before looking at her in the same way … as if they were feeling sorry for Hanabi now. It was written on their faces, which looked a bit frightening especially since the Uchiha's expression was no different from that of Naruto for once.

But the girl was no coward. She was going to withstand her sister's wrath no matter what.  
After all, she loved her deeply.

The door closed, leaving the two shinobi in complete silence. And then both of the young men let out loud sighs, leaning against the opposite walls and glaring at each other gloomily.

"You seriously picked the worst possible moment, dobe," Sasuke finally said, sliding down the wall and sitting down, bending one leg.

"I know right." Naruto sat on the floor in the lotus pose, covering his blushing face with his palm.

"Now we're both fucked. I didn't happen to tell Hinata that her sister wasn't a part of the whole mess."

"Damn it, Sasuke … I already said I'm sorry, okay? Let's better focus on what to do now," Naruto mumbled, still too embarrassed to meet his brother's eyes.

"What do you suggest? We can only hope that the brat is smart enough to excuse us somehow. Otherwise this can get pretty serious. Hinata is no joke anymore."

"She never was a joke to begin with!" Naruto blurted, raising his head to look at the Uchiha.

"You get what I mean, don't pretend to be a bigger moron than you are." Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes. "If she decides that we were a part of her father's plot, not only it's going to be very hard to earn her trust back, but she might also compromise the entire mission."

There wasn't a single sound breaking out of the room, and that was what made the Uchiha feel truly worried. It certainly wasn't a good sign. He'd seen Hinata being truly angry twice before, and she always was very quiet in this state.

"Damn it, teme … these Hyūga women are such a pain to deal with."

Sasuke smirked, not opening his eyes.

"I wouldn't say so. I rather had enjoyed dealing with one before you interfered."

Naruto's face changed, instantly losing all the shame as he grinned devilishly.

"So how was that? How far did you come?"

Sasuke opened his eyes, staring at him in disbelief. This dumbass would probably never change ...

But that was who Naruto was.

"Not as far as I'd like to, thanks to you moron. Did you manage to retrieve that Hidan guy?" He decided to change the topic before Naruto would manage to anger him again.

"Eh ... yeah, we did. I s'pose he's still eating somewhere downstairs. But why–"

"Let's go and check him out. I need to talk to him, and we don't have anything better to do right now anyway." The Uchiha got up, starting walking towards the stairs.

"Oi, teme! Wait!" Naruto quickly caught up with him, grinning slyly. "Why are you being so shy? I won't tell anyone!"

Sasuke's fist clenched as he turned his head slightly to glare at the blond with his right eye, activating the Sharingan.

"And here I thought you were older than twelve. Stop being an annoyance. Since you've already ruined the day, we should focus to the tasks we're having at hand. I must ask him a few questions before sending him to the front line."

"The front line ...?" Naruto looked at his nape, confused. "Are you going to use him as cannon fodder?"

The Uchiha simply shrugged.

"Obviously. What else can he do for us? Once he answers all of my questions, we probably won't be needing him for anything aside from serving us as a mean of intimidating other villages."

The jinchūriki blinked a few times before looking away.

"Serves him right, I guess. After all, he killed Asuma-sensei. By the way ...," the blond smirked again, "Are you going to meet him like _this_?"

Sasuke stopped at a staircase, looking down at his still unfastened belt and quietly cursing before making a hand sign, turning into the perfect image of Ōtsutsuki Indra. The only difference between the one Naruto had seen in the Sage's memories and Sasuke's Henge was his outfit – this Indra was wearing a hooded cloak with red clouds printed on it instead of the white coat with multiple magatama. Under the cloak was a black pullover much like those which many shinobi in Konoha usually wore as a part of their combat uniform, as well as simple black pants, fingerless gloves and plain sandals.  
It was also pretty weird to see Sasuke with long, dark brown hair that looked similar to Madara's.

Remembering that he too wasn't supposed to show his face to Hidan, Naruto quickly turned into his female self as they finally reached one of the lowest levels of the building where the stocks of food were located.

Just as they anticipated, Hidan was there as well as all the other Akatsuki members aside from Hinata. They were standing around the man who apparently had just finished his immense meal, hungrily drinking wine from a rough iron cup.

Noticing Indra and Ashura enter, Orochimaru coughed quietly, making all the eyes in the room set on the two of them. Even Hidan turned to face his new leader, putting the cup back on the floor and getting up, wiping his mouth clean and grinning.

"So you are the new boss? I'm not impre–" Before he could finish the sentence, the Sharingan swirled in Indra's eyes, making the immortal man fall to his knees, although not a single sound broke out of his mouth.

Yutaka frowned, activating his Sharingan as well. Apparently he wanted to learn about his own eyes' capabilities as much as he could, and watching Sasuke performing his techniques was a perfect opportunity.

At the same time, Suigetsu sighed.

"I can see he's not in his best mood today, eh?" the Hōzuki drawled lazily, eyeing his old teammate up and down and studying his disguise.

"You don't say," Jun replied, smirking and watching his new companion suffer the effects of the genjutsu.

Nobody else uttered a word, silently watching the show as well.

Hidan slowly raised his head in a few seconds, grinning madly as a small trickle of blood flowed out of his mouth down his chin.

"So that's the famous Tsukuyomi ... okay, perhaps I was wrong. My bad, you are pretty cool. But I'm not afraid of pain, so fuck you!" He laughed as Indra came close to him, looking absolutely impassive.

"Very good," his voice was a bit deeper than Sasuke's yet softer at the same time. "Now you will answer my questions if you don't want to get buried for good."

"Oh?" apparently the threat had its effect on him as the man's face instantly changed, becoming serious and collected. "What do you wanna know?"

The corners of Indra's mouth twitched.

"Tell me everything you know about Jashin."


	19. Trinity

**Chapter 19. Trinity**

"Tell me everything you know about Jashin."

Hidan scowled, staring at Indra silently yet searchingly, as if trying to figure him out.

The reaction to the request among other members of Akatsuki was pretty different. Suigetsu cocked his eyebrow questioningly, apparently having no idea what Indra was talking about. Surprisingly enough, Karin seemed to be familiar with the matter given that she only frowned a bit, silently waiting for them to continue.  
Jun, Jūgo and, much to his relief, Ashura remained impassive while Orochimaru smirked devilishly, sitting down on the rough wooden table and giving Hidan a quizzical look.  
Yutaka appeared rather calm as well, although his activated Sharingan gave away the fact that he actually felt pretty tense.

"Why would you wanna about Jashin-sama? Are you trying to fuck with me, bitch?" Hidan growled, leaning forward, only to fall on his knees again the instant he moved towards Indra.

The younger Uchiha gave Yutaka a short studying glance, noticing the Mangekyō pattern in his eyes. It was the first time when the man used a technique of his new dōjutsu, but, much to Sasuke's surprise, he didn't seem to be suffering any typical drawbacks. Was it because of the Uzumaki blood …?  
Making a mental note to dwell into the matter later, Indra said calmly,

"No. This is important to me, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you."

Apparently Hidan never realized that this time the binding genjutsu had been produced by another Uchiha, so he just coughed, still peering at the face of the new leader of Akatsuki and spitting another portion of blood on the stone floor – it seemed that he bit his tongue in attempts to break the illusion, which was strange considering that it evidently didn't help him at all.

"Maybe it is … maybe you're lying. Well, no matter. If you want immortality, you won't get it."

Indra suddenly chuckled, making Hidan frown in confusion.

"Don't worry, child, I don't seek immortality. I've already attained it long ago."

Wasn't that a bit too much for this act? Perhaps it was, but Sasuke decided to not focus on it for now. After all, unlike Naruto, he hadn't received the special training on creating a decent fake personality, so pretending to be a different man, let alone an ancient one, wasn't something the Uchiha was familiar with, even if he himself had been that man once upon a time. It would've been much easier if he retained the memories of his past lives, but since he didn't have any of them, there was no other choice but simply imagining his first incarnation according to the knowledge he possessed and trying to imitate the behavior. And the Uchiha believed that this was approximately how he would've talked to mortals if he was a few hundred years old.  
Especially to the likes of Hidan who weren't really the brightest in their generation.

"Is that so?" The purple eyes widened a bit; apparently Sasuke managed to catch the interest of the tenth member of Akatsuki, after all, although his expression was still rather skeptical. "That's what Orochimaru told me about you and this woman ... Ashura? Eh, anyway … let's assume that I believe you. But I know for a fact that it's impossible for people to receive _her_ blessing more often than once in fifty years or so. Last time it was me back when I was still a kid. Which means that you must be very old. But you hardly look older than me, you bastard. And same goes for this Ashura. Care to explain?"

Indra stepped closer, still gazing at the man impassively before uttering softly,

"Our power comes from a different source. You have nothing to worry about; I just want to know about your goddess as much as possible. I'm very old indeed … and so is Ashura. We grew tired of living without knowing what power stands behind the creation of everything in our world. And I was told that you were the only one who had managed to come in direct contact with the goddess herself. That's why I want you to share this knowledge with us. And, as a gesture of good will," Indra's Sharingan deactivated, and so did Yutaka's a second later, removing the non-existent shackles that were binding the Jashinist in his mind, "I'm not going to restrict you anymore unless you try behave hostile towards other members."

"About damn time," Hidan blurted, rubbing his temple crossly, although looking notably pleased with the granted freedom. "Alright, if you are interested for real… I guess it won't hurt if I tell you … after all, none of you will be able to even talk to Jashin-sama no matter what tricks you have up your sleeves." He glared at Indra and Ashura suspiciously before sitting down on the cold floor, propping his chin. "I was born in Yugakure. My mother was a whore in a brothel, so I have no idea who's my father. Nothing unusual for that place back in the days anyway. Well, long story short, she's got herself killed by one of her clients, so I've been adopted by Aoba, a shinobi from Yu. He taught me to fight and all the other shit necessary for survival … as well as introduced me to the Cult."

 _The Cult …?_ Sasuke helf back a smirk. Now this was getting interesting …

"It didn't have any name back then, but its members were the ones who made me who I am nowadays. Though I guess you could say that it turned to be mutual in the end," he grinned, studying Indra's emotionless expression as if trying to find for a sign of something that would give him a reason to not continue the story.  
But he found nothing to complain about, so he kept speaking, "They mostly did nothing useful, always babbling about some turbid ancient legends and other useless shit, but there also were a few stargazers. The brainiacs, like everyone else called them. I myself was just a stupid brat back then, so I don't know what exactly did they do, but I think they calculated something about the trajectory of the moon and other planets or some shit like that ..."

Indra flinched at his last line, and so did Ashura. They exchanged short anxious glances, but apparently Hidan didn't notice that, deepening in his memories.

"Basically, they prepared some kind of a ritual to reflect the chakra off the moon and connect it with the realm of Jashin-sama. And since I was the only 'untainted child' there, whatever the fuck it meant, they decided to use me as the medium. They said that the ritual can only be performed approximately once per fifty years when the certain positioning of planets occurs, and the connection only lasts for a minute or so. And so they did it. I was lying there, tied and bleeding, but it didn't matter." His eyes suddenly became absolutely insane as he raised them to glare at the others in the room, yelling maniacally, "I could talk to her! To Jashin-sama! And she was talking to me! Nothing else mattered, nothing else matters! Do you Understand? I …," he blurted loudly, tempting Sasuke to activate the Sharingan again to shut him up.

It already was far too suspicious even prior to this talk with Hidan. He knew of only one person who was immortal in the same way this man was – that was why he had decided to investigate the whole Jashin issue in the first place when Orochimaru had mentioned the strange phenomenon. And now that this madman also had mentioned the mysterious 'her', as well as the moon as the only mean to create the connection with this 'her' … his suspicion grew with every second.

"What did she say to you?" Indra interrupted him impatiently, making Hidan flinch, looking a bit confused. Apparently it wasn't that often when somebody took his tale serious, and the fact that his new leader actually looked _dead_ serious now made the man feel lost for a moment.

"I … she … she told me that she's to come back to our world soon. She said that she's going to destroy ninja and reclaim what is rightfully hers. And that I'm the one to help her fulfill this goal! I'm the chosen one, get it? She blessed me with immortality so that I could become her eternal servant! So that I could kill all of her enemies before she would arrive!"

"Was that why you've decided to join Akatsuki in the first place?" Ashura suddenly asked, looking just as just troubled as Indra.

"Yeah, why? It was like the best opportunity to do so, don't you think? And now that I'm back, I can keep serving the purpose that was given to me! Suck it, you pineapple headed fucker! Ha-ha!" Everyone in the room aside from Sasuke and Naruto stared at him in complete confusion as they heard his last line, obviously unable to grasp who he was referring to.

But it didn't matter at the moment.

"Listen, Hidan … I have a very serious question now. Did you actually see her? Do you know what Jashin-sama looks like?" asked Indra, perhaps a bit more emotionally than he intended to.

The madman narrowed his eyes, glaring at him suspiciously for a few seconds before drawling,

"I did. I know. Her beauty outshines everything in this world … but I won't tell you anything else. You're non-believers, so you're not worthy of this sacred knowledge. I've already told you 'nuff, you plebs."

Sasuke gritted his teeth in irritation. Just how strong was the urge to incinerate this fanatic on the spot…  
But he had to find out the truth. And there was no other choice but pulling it out of Hidan by talking to him. Using the Human Path on the man could be dangerous – he was clearly mentally unhealthy, and the Uchiha wasn't sure what could happen to his own psychic if he touched his mind. After all, he still hadn't practiced the technique enough to be absolutely confident.

"Fair enough, don't tell us then. Just answer one question. Did she resemble a rabbit in any way?" he asked, making the room sink into awkward silence, broken only by Suigetsu's sneer the white haired teen apparently didn't manage to hold back, quickly paling and becoming quiet at the dead cold glare coming from Indra.

But apparently Hidan didn't find it neither funny nor offensive at all. In fact, he just stared at the Uchiha and Ashura as if having a hard time deciding what to say.

"How do you know about it?" he finally uttered in the unusually quiet manner, making Sasuke's heart skip a beat.

So this was it. Jashin most likely was nobody else but Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. And the Cult had managed to find a way to connect with her somehow… while she already was here, in their world, with her conscious imprisoned inside of the Gedō Mazō that Madara had summoned after attaining his Rinnegan.

And the way to come in touch with her still existed … he had been correct in his suspicions all along!

Feeling Ashura's tight grip on his shoulder, Sasuke realized that Naruto had come to the same conclusion, which was good. Together they would be able to find and sever Kaguya's last connection to their world. They still had more than ample time according to Hidan's words, after all.  
But in order to do so, they would need him to introduce them to the Cult later, so he had to be very careful around the man from now on to not scare him away, preferably earning his trust.

"I think I've seen her back when I was young … centuries ago," he finally lied, making Hidan gasp in shock.

"Her …! You remember her being here in this world?" he nearly yelled as his hands started shaking of the excitement.

"Yeah … I remember her a little. Like I said, we are really old despite the looks. But for now, it's irrelevant. Listen … we, Akatsuki, have a few goals to accomplish. And to do so, we need your aid."

Hidan's face quickly changed, becoming aggressive again.

"Huh? While it's shocking to find out that you actually have seen Jashin-sama, don't you dare telling me that your goals are something related to gathering money. I'm out of this shit, had enough of Kakuzu in the past!" he barked, looking at Indra askance.

"No … actually, this time it's something that you are very fond of. We're about to clash with Kusagakure, and I need you and your new partner to lead our forces to crush them. Can you make it?"

Hidan simply shrugged.

"Yeah, of course I can. Is that it? Just to kill some Kusa rats?"

"Virtually, yes. We shall talk about Jashin and everything concerning her once this problem is solved. For now, take your time recovering and training to retain your former shape. The battle might start any moment now."

The man grinned madly, nodding quickly.

"Fine … I'm looking forward to that. If you really saw Jashin-sama, I want to know everything about it. And if you're telling the truth … perhaps I will tell you more myself," he added, getting up from the floor.

Indra gave him the tiniest of smiles, nodding as well.

"Seems like a fair deal. For now, you are dismissed. Everyone," his gaze slid over every ninja in the room. "Orochimaru will give you the rings by the evening. Yutaka, I need to talk to you in private. Let's go. Everyone else, dismissed as well." He turned around, walking out of the room, followed immediately by the older Uchiha.

Ashura suddenly slapped her forehead, turning to the only real woman in the room.

"Oh, that reminds me …! Karin! Can we talk? In private, too," she smiled at the other kunoichi, to which she chuckled.

"Sure. I expected that you'd want to talk. Let's go." They went out of the stocks as well, striding quickly towards the empty room where Naruto's Hiraishin seals were placed.

Making sure that nobody was following them, the blond Uzumaki turned into his real form, smirking at his cousin.

"Sasuke sure made quite a show there, didn't he?"

She gave him a sly glance, fixing the glasses on her nose.

"I think the fuss you've made just prior to that was much better. Shame I wasn't there to see it myself. And here I thought you were a sensory type as well … poor Hinata," the girl sighed pretentiously, shaking her head and suppressing a sneer.

Naruto's cheeks reddened rapidly as he slapped his face with his palm.

"Please … not you too, Karin-chan. I've already had enough of that with Sasuke ..."

The red haired kunoichi smirked devilishly as they walked along the narrow corridor.

"Yeah, I'm quite surprised that he hasn't killed you up there. Anyway … they will have enough time to overtake arrears later. What exactly did you want to discuss with me?" she asked as they entered the room, closing the door behind themselves.

"And you even have to ask?" He gasped, staring at the young woman. "I know next to nothing about my clan! I always thought that there was no way for me to find another clansman, and now I meet you, my cousin! An Uzumaki!"

Karin sighed sadly, sitting down in the middle of the room and gazing at the teen in all seriousness.

"I understand … but I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I don't know that much about our clan as well. You see, I grew up in Kusa and joined Orochimaru-sama later, working under his tutelage all this time. I've never even been to Uzushiogakure in the first place. The only things I know are a few techniques of our clan, thanks to Orochimaru-sama. Various seals and something else, but that's about it, I think." She smiled apologetically, lowering her crimson eyes. She wouldn't admit it, but for a reason she herself didn't know she was afraid to see the lights go out of the cheerful blue eyes.

"Meh, don't worry about it!" He exclaimed cheerfully, making Karin snap her head in surprise and give Naruto a baffled look. What she had told him certainly wasn't supposed to leave him in a good mood, was it …? "We'll figure something out! Mom said that the remains of our clan had been scattered across the globe after the destruction of Uzushio, so I bet we're not the only survivors!"

Karin stared at the blond, being completely shocked. Just what was he trying to say …?

"Eh? Are you implying that you're going to look for the the other survivors? Do you intend to restore our clan …?" she babbled, unsure what to the expect from her weird new-found relative.

"Of course! But we won't have to look for 'em. Unlike Sasuke's clan, ours hasn't been wiped out – just disbanded, from what I was told. When I'll become the Hokage, I'm gonna announce that any Uzumaki is welcome in Konoha. I think it's gonna work just fine considering what we're planning to do … with making it the best place in the world and everything, y'know." His expression darkened a bit as he sat in front of her, forming a few hand signs. "By the way, what you did to this room is absolutely splendid! Can you teach me how to do such things?"

In spite of still being shocked by the blond revealing his intention concerning their clan, Karin smirked, feeling quite proud of herself for once. Such a powerful shinobi asking her to teach him wasn't something that occurred to the kunoichi every day to say the least. And she loved being useful, especially to someone who truly appreciated it.

"Y-Yeah … sure. I can sense that you've placed your own signature seals all over the place …" She fixed the glasses again, looking around as if trying to see the invisible marks.

"Well, yea! When I saw your work, I kinda figured that it would be the best place to use it for teleportation and stuff. Since the girls can't see through the walls here with their Byakugan, and even I can't sense anything outside of it while we're in … damn, you really must teach me that! And all the other cool stuff, too!"

Karin grinned complacently, taking a few scrolls out of her pockets.

"Well then, I hope you are a fast learner. Some of these are very difficult, it took me months to master them. Do you think you can keep up?" she asked teasingly, realizing that somebody who rivaled Sasuke himself had to be a true genius, yet still unable to fight the temptation to taunt the teen a little bit, finding his expressive behavior quite funny and relaxing.

That's why she wasn't surprised one bit when he smirked as well, forming the familiar hand sign.

"Oh, you have no idea … Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

* * *

"Settle down. It's going to take a while. And don't even think about trying something. You are no match for me anymore," Hinata said harshly, staring at her younger sister with her arms crossed on her chest.

Hanabi swallowed hard, sitting on the bed hesitantly. Of course, after everything their father had done, she didn't expect a warm welcome, but seeing her how much good old Hinata had changed … her ice cold eyes sent chills down her spine, and that was quite something considering that she always had withstood Hiashi's glares effortlessly.

But Hinata … not only she looked quite different from what the young kunoichi remembered, but she also seemed absolutely _confident_ which always was completely foreign to her. It could be seen in Hinata's eyes – she was _absolutely_ sure that she could easily take Hanabi down should it become necessary.

And somehow this glare of hers made the girl feel the same way.

She wasn't sure where to start her tale. Would she even be able to convince Hinata of her goodwill? Apparently her sister didn't trust her one bit anymore. Just what had Sasuke done to her? What could've possible led to such dramatic changes …?

"Well, n **ē** -chan … it's, uh–"

"Quit this game. I'm not buying any of your cheap stories. The clan won't be able to fool me ever again," the black haired Hyūga replied calmly, interrupting Hanabi.

The younger girl's eyes widened. _Ever again …? She must be talking about_ …

"It was Kō, wasn't it? Was it because of him you–"

"No, it wasn't because of him. He was merely following father's orders, just like all of you lapdogs. I was a naive idiot to believe that there is something more to this damned clan than the blind intention of following a bigot's will."

Hanabi lowered her eyes shamefully, hugging herself as if she suddenly found Hinata's gaze being too cold to stand.

"Yeah, I know," she uttered quietly, "That's why I agreed to this plan to begin with."

Hinata was silent for a few seconds, peering at the girl searchingly and waiting for her to continue, but she didn't say anything, just staring at the floor instead.

"What plan are you talking about? And how exactly Sasuke and Naruto are involved in this? What are they hiding from me?"

The younger kunoichi sighed intermittently, afraid to meet Hinata's eyes again. She could only hope that this new foreign person whom her sister had become trusted the Uchiha enough to believe him once he would confirm her story.  
Finally gathering the courage to go on, Hanabi replied slowly,

"Well … it all started when I found out that you were going to receive the seal. I … I felt furious, nē-chan. I couldn't believe that father was going to actually do _that_ to you … I approached him then, tried to talk him out of this idea. But he never listened." The girl could feel the betraying tears filling her eyes, making her grit her teeth in an attempt to keep calm. "I had to do something … I … there was no other way …" Unable to hold it back anymore, she whimpered, finally allowing the mask she had been wearing ever since that day give a crack. All the frightening questions she had been pushing away all along, being afraid of the possible answers, rapidly filled her mind now, making the girl's body start trembling as the long suppressed stress finally hit her.

"What did you do?" Hinata frowned, taking a step toward Hanabi but stopping midway. Apparently she still thought that this could be an act …

The unbridled fury filled every fiber of the brown haired kunoichi, making the tears stream down her cheeks as she clenched her fists.  
Just what had that bastard Kō done to her beloved sister to make her this suspicious of _her_ , of all people? What kind of a monster he was to harm like this someone he had been nursing ever since her childhood …?

"I … w-when I found out you were missing, I came to the S-Sixth straight away. I … I told him everything. What father intended to do, what made you leave the village. What was truly going on in our clan, about the atrocities they commit to those f-from the B-Branch House … everything. And he … he offered me a choice. I … see, I had to … nobody else could do that! Nobody else would ever dare!" she yelped, biting her lip and shaking her head.

"What ...? What kind of a choice …?" Hinata gasped, coming close to her shaking sister and kneeling before her, trying to look the suddenly stuttering girl in the eyes, but Hanabi turned away, afraid to meet her gaze.

"I … I could w-wait for f-father to pass away and hence to allow me to l-lead the clan one day, y-years later … making you become a nukenin. W-Waiting patiently for that day to come, f-following father's will like I was always meant to. Or … the H-Hokage offered me to join ANBU to become his eyes and ears w-within the clan. And in exchange … he p-promised me to come up with a plan to get rid of f-father … to arrange … his death." She sobbed, closing her face with her palms. "It's been s-settled … I've been promised ... an opportunity to kill him … s-soon enough to change the clan before it becomes too late, you see? This way, I could get rid of this abomination that's been tainting our bloodline for ages …! And also to make it possible for you … to come back," she finished, her voice dropping to a whisper by the end of the phrase.

Hinata slowly raised her arm and reached out to the crying girl, touching her forearm lightly and making Hanabi flinch, opening her tearful eyes and staring at her sister perplexedly.

"Is it true? Was Sasuke aware of this?" the older Hyūga uttered softly, finally allowing herself to show a tiny bit of her old compassionate personality that she still kept locked deep inside.

Hanabi nodded slowly first, but then quickly shook her head.

"Yeah … no... I mean, he knew that I w-was on your side since the very beginning. He also knew that the S-Sixth had some plan to deal with f-father and that I was involved … but he didn't know about the s-specifics. We'd met in Konoha just prior to your birthday, you know." The memory made a small smile break through the endless sobs. "I told him that the day was coming and asked him not to mention it to you … that I was involved, th-that is. I didn't want you to know … I thought that if you found out, you could've decided to come back to the village and try to talk me out of it. But you would've got caught if you tried. I couldn't allow it!" she blurted, closing her face again and crying desperately. She didn't know if Hinata was going to believe her or not, but there hardly was anything else the kunoichi could come up with to convince her sister. Her only tiny glimpse of hope was that the Uchiha would confirm her story later, and perhaps then her sister would trust her again…

That's why Hanabi gasped when Hinata touched her chin gently, making the younger Hyūga stare into the eyes that looked exactly like her own in disbelief, taken completely by surprise of the warm gesture, and even more so by the dreamy smile that was now playing on her sister's lips, suddenly making everything around seem very surreal.

"So that's how he knew … I see now … it was thanks to you …!"

Hanabi hiccuped, baffled by the sudden reaction.

"Knew …? Knew what?"

Hinata's smile became even wider, and then she hugged her, finally stopping the shaking in her body.

"My birth date. I was wondering how did come he had known it, because Sasuke was the last person whom I would've expected to be interested in such trivial things. And now it makes sense … it was all because of you. The best birthday in my life … was thanks to you, Hanabi." The younger kunoichi felt herself melting in the warm embrace as she was hearing Hinata's rapid heartbeat, feeling something she had never hoped to feel again.

She felt at home.

"R-Really? The best, you say? What did he do?" she muttered perplexedly, hearing Hinata giggle quietly.

"Not that much, when you think about it … he's got me a present and took me out for a dinner. But coming from someone like Sasuke …" Hanabi couldn't help but sneer as Hinata pulled away from her, sitting down on the floor on her knees and smiling happily. _Just like the old times …  
_  
"Yeah, I get it. To think that the almighty Uchiha could do such cute, trivial things … I guess it turned out to be not that bad? Traveling with him, that is," she mumbled, wiping the tears off her face.

Hinata lowered her eyes as her cheeks reddened a little.

"It was … probably the best thing that ever happened to me. By now, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. Sometimes it all still seems unbelievable, but Sasuke … he ..." She stopped, making Hanabi smile reassuringly.

"He loves you, doesn't he?"

To her surprise and confusion, Hinata let out a heavy sigh, staring at the floor thoughtfully.

"I don't know … and it doesn't really matter to me. I love him, and I'm going to stay by his side no matter what. I owe him everything, Hanabi. What I've become … all this … my very life. If not for him, I would've been dead long ago. And … I'm not sure if it's going to make you sad or happy," she met Hanabi's puzzled gaze again, her smile vanishing. "You were wrong. Even if I knew about your plan, I wouldn't have come back to the village unless he wanted me to return or returned himself."

Unsure how to react to the revelation, Hanabi nodded slowly, taking her sister's hand in hers hesitantly.

"That's … a relief, I suppose? I … at least now I can see you are happy with him. And … you sure have changed a lot, too …" She smiled sheepishly, and so did Hinata. "He trained you, didn't he?"

She nodded.

"Yes, he did … and not only that. A lot of things have happened."

"You mean your new kekkei genkai?" Hanabi asked curiously, making the rogue kunoichi flinch.

"How do you know about it …?" Once again there was a note of suspicion on Hinata's voice, but Hanabi just shrugged casually, clearly not considering it a big dial.

"It was in Orochimaru-san's report. He had sent it to the Sixth, and there was some detailed information concerning every member of Akatsuki save for Sasuke, Naruto and Hidan."

The black haired Hyūga sighed resignedly, lowering her head.

"So … it's official now? I'm a nukenin ..."

Hanabi could feel her heart sinking for a second, but she wasn't going to lie to her sister no matter how harsh the truth could possibly be.

"Yes … I'm so sorry, nē-chan–"

"Don't be." Hanabi stopped, meeting her reassuring smile. "I've chosen this path myself, and I have no regrets. I just hope that you're not going to let the clan chase me when you'll become the head," she joked, sneering at the idea.

"What …? No, of course I won't let it, you stupid!" she punched Hinata in the shoulder lightly, making the young woman giggle in the manner that totally didn't match her recent behavior.

"I missed you, Hanabi." She finally admitted, giving the brown haired girl a warm, loving smile.

"Oh, I missed you so much as well, nē-chan!" Hanabi pounced on her sister, hugging her as tight as she could, making Hinata gasp as it became a bit hard for her to breath.

"Ugh … you sure have become quite strong … and big, too …" she squeezed out, albeit returning the hug.

"Not as strong as you are, I bet!" She let Hinata go, wiping her face quickly again and meeting the now warm and welcoming white eyes of her sister. "I'm dying to see what you can do with all the new techniques! Orochimaru-san stated in his report that you're an S-rank now, that's quite something if you ask me! Could very well become a Hokage yourself!"

Hinata sighed, shaking her head, though unable to hold back the happy smile. She hadn't realized it until now, but she truly missed this – being around Hanabi and simply chattering about different trifles.

"I think we could spar later, if you want. I still need to talk to Sasuke–"

"To talk, huh?" she drawled, making the older sister blush in an instant.

"Don't you dare," the young woman mumbled, getting up and looking around. "Anyway, I need to dress up first." She reached out for Sasuke's shirt, taking the cloak off.

Hanabi frowned, watching as Hinata bared in front of her so casually, smoothing the wrinkled fabric of the cloth and evidently not giving a damn about being naked in front of another person. She probably didn't even think about it now, but to her younger sister it was a very notable contrast; Hinata always had been so shy whenever she had to undress, and now she just stood in front of her as if it was nothing …

Once again the girl realized just how much her sister had changed during the last half of the year. It wasn't just her physical capabilities, so it seemed. She nearly radiated strength and confidence now … quite unlike herself.

"Sorry about the interruption, by the way," Hanabi suddenly said, "I really didn't know you were … well ... it's just that Naruto ..."

Hinata shrugged indifferently, putting on the shirt with the Uchiha crest on its back which once again made Hanabi stare at her in amazement.

"Well, that's Naruto for you. You better get used to his attitude, you're the one who's going to have to withstand it for many years."

Hanabi blushed rapidly, gasping loudly.

"Wh– What? Why is that?"

Hinata turned her head to her and glared at the girl in slight confusion, apparently not understanding her reaction.

"He's going to be the Hokage, and you're an ANBU. What do you think?"

Now she felt herself very stupid, because the question Hinata asked her hit into the bull-eye. What on earth was she thinking when she heard her phrase ...?

"Um … ugh … never mind," she mumbled quickly, turning away and silently thanking Hinata for retaining at least one of her former traits – the lack of the annoying habit to push whenever the person she was talking to felt embarrassed.

"Now then … I believe it's getting pretty late," Hinata said, putting her pants on and looking for her sandals. "Aren't you tired? I think you should find Sasuke and ask him about a spare room. I understand you're going to stay for a while, aren't you?"

"Oh … Yeah. Father is going to strike this place soon enough. Until then, I've been ordered to stay here, so don't hope to get rid of me so soon," Hanabi smirked, watching her sister as she was fixing her hair.

"Well, that's fine by me. But you still have to ask either Sasuke or Yutaka about the room. They are the ones who are in charge here."

Hanabi blinked a few times in slight confusion before muttering,

"Yutaka …? Who's that? I don't recall seeing this name in the report of Orochimaru-san. By the way …," she grinned devilishly, eyeing the older Hyūga and down. "This shirt really suits you."

Surprisingly enough, this time Hinata didn't show any signs of shyness; instead, she came close to the bed, falling onto it tiredly and turning to Hanabi who had to turn around to face her as well.

"Oh, that's a very long story. Come here, this is going to take a while."

* * *

"That's ... impressive," Sasuke muttered to himself, watching the black lightning he had just produced sparking in Yutaka's hand now. "Do you feel any drawbacks?"

The man shrugged indifferently, although wincing a little bit as he was trying to maintain the control over Sasuke's jutsu.

"Well, chakra this potent is hard for me to handle … but I believe this is thanks to my right eye that I can manage it, at least somehow. I'm fairly sure that it's going to disintegrate the instant I stop infusing my eye with my own chakra, though." The barely notable smile on the man's usually impassive face didn't escape Sasuke's gaze, which made the teen feel relieved.  
At least Yutaka seemed a quite happy about his new power … as well as about the fact that his clan's head kept his word and actually started teaching him the secrets of his heritage.

"That's strange. Back when I had just awakened my Mangekyō, it hurt me whenever I tried to use it. Don't you feel your eyes aching?"

The man shook his head as the pattern in his eyes changed – they turned back into a pair of base Sharingan. And apparently he had been correct in his earlier assumption – Sasuke's Rikudō Chidori disappeared the same moment.

"No … not really. My head hurts a little, but that's okay. You know what I think about pain," he smirked grimly, brushing a strand of his reddish black hair off his face.

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully as the purple ribs of Susanō formed around him.

"Very interesting. Apparently the Uzumaki genes prevent your eyes from getting blind of the strain of using your abilities … and although you still lack the power benefits of the Eternal Mangekyō, at least you should be able to maintain a complete Susanō after some training. The ability to steal chakra constructs is pretty impressive as well. Try stealing this now," Yutaka nodded intently, looking very collected and a bit nervous as he activated his dōjutsu again.

And just as he did it, something strange happened. The Susanō that was covering Indra's incarnation disappeared instantly; at the same time, the similar chakra avatar of the same size appeared around the older Uchiha, rapidly changing its color to bloody red, along with a few minor differences in the form.

"What are you feeling now?" Sasuke asked carefully, noticing the perplexed expression on his clansman's face.

"Weird … the pain became much stronger. My entire body hurts quite a lot now. But I think I can maintain this so long as I have chakra … and I believe I have more than ample," he smirked as the Susanō's arms moved, forming a shield and a double-edged glaive.

It was true that Yutaka's chakra reserves were pretty immense. In his current state, he most likely would be able to keep Susanō up for at least an hour or so before getting completely drained.  
It was indeed a big fortune that his mother was an Uzumaki ...

"For now, avoid putting too much chakra into it, especially in a battle. Without the due practice, you might end up losing control over it and thus wasting significant amount of energy.

"Wait a second," the older man muttered timidly, deactivating the Sharingan in his eyes that widened in surprise the same second – the avatar actually didn't disappear, much to his amazement. "It's … it's still there!" He gasped, moving the chakra arms of his shell again.

Sasuke nodded approvingly, grinning contentedly as he observed Yutaka's performance.

"Susanō doesn't require the Sharingan to be activated for you to use it after you've acquired it once. Even if someone takes your eyes, you will still have it. Aside from it, that's probably because you've mixed some of your own chakra into the jutsu you had stolen. This one is not that powerful for you to not be able to control it, I suppose. I doubt you could keep the Perfect Susanō up, though, but even at this rate, this technique of yours seems incredibly effective. Virtually, you can steal the chakra without coming into direct contact with your enemy, preserving its shape or even changing it if needed … how often do you think you can use it?"

Still mesmerized by his newly obtained chakra construct, Yutaka narrowed his eyes calculatingly.

"Not that often, so it seems. Once a minute or so, I believe. It seems to require some time to recharge," he mumbled, smashing the chakra glaive into the stone floor of the big hall and piercing it with the same ease as a hot knife could be cutting through a piece of butter.

"Now then, that's enough for now. What about the other eye of yours? Have you tested it yet? What can it do?" asked Sasuke, watching as the red Susanō dispersed in the air at his command.

"Yes. I've tested it on Hidan down there, though he didn't seem to realize it. When I tried to use the same genjutsu you had used on him … well, I'm not sure if I got it right, but it seemed like the portion of my chakra that had entered his system with the genjutsu allowed me to attain the partial control over his body. He clearly realized that it was pointless after his first failed attempt, but I still have made him bit his tongue again while he didn't intend to do so."

The younger Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise. So that's what really happened back then ...

That sure was one very tricky and powerful ability. In its essence, it seemed to work in the way very much similar to that of controlling a body with Rinnegan's Six Paths. Albeit the Rinnegan's technique was based on channeling the chakra into a body through the receivers, providing a flawless control, this one seemed to be less powerful, but on the contrary it didn't require anything but casting a genjutsu. The question was how strong could the potential impact be in theory …

"Try using it on me," he said after some thinking, to which Yutaka nodded quickly, performing his genjutsu on Sasuke.

Sinking into the illusory world, the teen didn't try to resist it first, so he could feel his arm move on its own, gripping his sword and taking it out of the scabbard.  
The next second he could already feel the muscles of his legs tense, and just as they made him jump backwards, the Uchiha tried to regain the control over his body, only to smack hard on the floor, grunting more of the ridicule of his pose than of pain.

"Not bad … not bad at all," he got up quickly, wiping the dust off his cloak. "How long can it last?"

Yutaka shrugged, looking unsure, as well as … was suppressing a sneer as he watched his fall …?

"I guess it depends on many factors. If you didn't resist, I probably could've made it last for half a minute or so. It consumes quite a lot of chakra, but the good part of it is that I myself can actually move, keeping the jutsu up at the same time." He smiled excitingly, making Sasuke smirk unwillingly as well.

The ability of Yutaka's left eye turned to be shockingly impressive to say the least. Of course, it required incredibly high mastery and sure was going to take a lot of training for him to be able to use it in real combat with maximum efficiency, but the potential possibilities it provided …  
In theory, it could allow him to avoid a fatal strike, to save his comrade from one, or even make his enemy kill himself in action … along with many, many other things that already flowed through Sasuke's head, making him feel nearly as excited as Yutaka himself was.

"Now then … considering all of your abilities, your eyes make you a very hard target to kill. That's good. I want you to survive no matter what, don't forget it. After all," Sasuke made a short pause, feeling a bit overwhelmed with the memories of the past for a second as he muttered, lowering his voice, "You're family."

Yutaka then did something the younger Uchiha never expected him to do – he smirked pertly, nodding.

"I know. And I feel the same way. Don't worry, though; I don't plan on dying before I fulfill my ambitions."

Sasuke's eyebrows cocked in surprise at the familiar line.

"Ambitions? And what are they?"

Yutaka deactivated the Sharingan, closing his eyes.

"That's a stupid question. I didn't receive this last gift from Kimiko for nothing. I want to revive our clan. And to make this village a great place. In order to do so, it's crucial to stay alive, don't you think so?"

The raven haired teen smirked in understanding.

"Hn. It is indeed." He stepped towards the entrance of the hall. "We're done for now. I still need to prepare for tomorrow, and you should have some rest. Uzumaki blood or not, using Mangekyō for the first time is pretty exhausting."

Yutaka's face changed back to a serious one quickly as he nodded in agreement.

"Understood. Are you going to need my aid in the upcoming mess?"

Sasuke shook his head, but then stopped for a moment.

"No … although … yes, perhaps I will. Meet me at the Gates in the morning. We'll discuss it there."

"Will do," came the immediate reply.

The younger Uchiha went out of the hall, walking quickly towards the stairs to get back to the bedroom.  
After all, he still needed to sort things out between himself and Hinata …

Hopefully her sister would turn to be smart enough to solve this little problem prior to his arrival. Sasuke certainly wasn't in the mood for scenes, especially with what awaited him the next day.

To his big pleasure, just when he reached their floor, the door in the end of the long corridor snapped open, allowing him to see the brown haired Hyūga girl walk out of the room, closing the door behind her and going straight towards him. And she looked … happy?

 _Well then … perhaps she's not an idiot, after all._

"So?" he asked laconically when they approached each other, glaring at her cheerful face impassively.

"It's alright. You may go in, she's not going to kill you." The girl winked at him, making the Uchiha frown.

"What did you say to her?" he asked demandingly, but, surprisingly enough, the kunoichi didn't seem to be afraid of his cold glare.

"The truth. After all, you weren't really involved in my plan, were you? I only asked you to not mention our meeting to her, that's all."

They kept looking at each other silently for a few seconds before Sasuke finally let out a tired sigh.

"Whatever. Hopefully you didn't make it any worse."

The girl smirked.

"You're going to be surprised. Oh, by the way … Hinata said that I should ask you about a room where I can stay, so ..."

"Just pick whichever you find suitable. Most of them are not used, but they may not be as comfortable as the bedrooms in the Hyūga estate," he said, regretting it instantly seeing as her expression quickly darkened, making the kunoichi lower her eyes sadly.

"I can imagine what you think of me, Uchiha-san … but you are wrong if you believe that I'm someone who craves comfort. All I care about is saving my clan. But I'm sure you know the feeling, don't you?" her quiet insinuating voice made something in Sasuke's heart twitch unpleasantly, making the teen frown, feeling … shame?

"Yeah … sorry," he replied indifferently, turning away and walking towards their room.

Opening the door, he cocked his eyebrow as he noticed Hinata lying on their bed on her back with her hand outstretched in front of herself, studying at her nails and … ignoring him?

 _Uh-huh._ So they had noticed him approaching beforehand, and that's why Hanabi had decided to retire just in time to meet him outside the room.

"That was a bit rude of you," the young woman uttered calmly, not looking at the Uchiha.

"What exactly are you talking about?" he asked, taking his cloak off and throwing it at the table.

A small smile appeared on her lips.

"Indeed … it could be said about many things when it comes to you. But right now, I'm talking about Hanabi. What you've just said to her was rude and totally uncalled."

Sasuke simply shrugged, sitting down on the bed. Hinata's behavior was strange, but he had to admit to himself that he actually had expected worse.

"I said I'm sorry."

"Are you?"

"Not really," he replied honestly, unsure where this conversation was leading them, but he didn't really care. No matter what he felt for Hinata, he wasn't going to step over himself just because a brat's feelings could be hurt by the words of him, a stranger.

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, making the Uchiha start wondering what was she doing behind his back, but just as he decided to turn and look at her, the Hyūga suddenly asked,

"Why haven't you told me that the two of you had met each other in Konoha?" Her tone was as calm and blank as before.

"You never asked."

He could hear a light sneer behind his back which somehow sounded disturbing, making Sasuke clench his fist at the unfamiliar cold, uncomfortable feeling.

Was he afraid that she could possibly be mad at him?  
Was he afraid of this girl's reaction to his actions?  
Did her feelings really mean that much to him ...?

 _What a nonsense._

"I guess this is just who you are … I can only wonder how many times you're going to surprise me again in future."

"I love you."

 _What …?_ He could feel his heart stop, rendering him breathless at the complete silence that fell upon the small room.

Just where the heck did this come from …? What on earth had he just done?

Fighting the urge to teleport out of the room right away, Sasuke slowly turned around, meeting the shocked gaze of Hinata's white eyes.

They just looked at each other for what seemed like a whole eternity until she finally opened her mouth, nearly whispering,

"That's … quite a surprise indeed."

He scowled. Was she mocking him now ...? Just what kind of a reaction was that …?

"I love you too. But I've already told you this."

They kept staring into each other's eyes for another minute as if the time froze before Sasuke asked,

"So … is everything alright?"

He wasn't sure if it was an optical illusion due to the dance of the flame of the torch on the wall, but he saw the corners of her mouth twitch.

"Not exactly," she replied quietly, putting him on the verge of an outburst.

"What is it, then?" he snapped. This girl was truly driving him insane ...

"It took you so long to come back that I had managed to retell Hanabi everything about out adventures in the last few months, in details. And … considering the state you've left me in ... what do you think it is?" she asked, lowering her eyes sheepishly as her cheeks reddened.

Overwhelmed with the vast spectrum of emotions, Sasuke was silent for a few seconds before growling,

"You're so going to pay for getting on my nerves like this, Hyūga."

Giving him a taunting grin, the kunoichi whispered,

"I'm looking forward to this."

His Rinnegan shined in the light of the torch as he made a quick motion of his hand, making sure to lock the door this time.


	20. The Point of No Return

**Chapter 20. The Point of No Return**

His heartbeat was so … calming.

His embrace was so warm ...

His breath was pleasantly tickling.

Hinata didn't want to open her eyes, desperately treasuring the overwhelming feeling of being _complete_ for the first time in her life, wanting this moment to last as long as possible.

He _loved_ her. And although he had confessed just an hour ago, Hinata realized now that words meant absolutely _nothing_ comparing with the way he touched her … held her ...

 _Took_ her …

The young woman smiled dreamily to herself, tightly hugging the man's chest her head was resting on, silently reflecting on the foreign feelings.

Everything had become so … irrelevant all of sudden. Konoha … Ame … their mission … her clan …

Her father...

She fought the urge to grin devilishly as she imagined his furious face.

Of course, he would be incredibly mad if he would find out that she'd just lost her virginity without being married ... and to the Uchiha, of all people …  
After all, modesty and tradition were among the most important parts of the Hyūga clan's teachings. And knowing this, she just loved this new, tainting feeling of being _impure._ Only now Hinata finally felt truly liberated from her clan and from the ghosts of her past, severing yet another thread that had connected her with the name of Hyūga.

However, she wasn't completely free just yet …

"Sasuke …," the kunoichi purred, tempted yet a bit scared by the sudden idea.

The Uchiha simply hemmed questioningly, sounding somewhat sleepy and thoughtful at the same time.

"According to the tradition of the ancient clans, as an honorable man, you are supposed to marry me after this, you know?"

Afraid of his possible reaction for a moment, Hinata felt the reliving warmth of his smirk which made her smile unwillingly as well.

"So now I _am_ honorable, huh?"

She opened her left eye, looking at his tranquil face sheepishly, and giggled quietly.

"I never said you aren't. As a matter of fact, I think that sometimes you are too honest and straightforward for your own good."

His sigh felt unusually intermittent, which made her wonder what was he truly thinking on the matter, but before an idea could form in her mind, he uttered quietly,

"I don't think it's possible to marry a nukenin. At least not officially, not in the common way. You are now wanted in all the five Great Countries, remember?"

She frowned, opening her second eye and looking away, staring at the dancing fire of the torch on the opposite side of the room.  
He was right, of course. It was impossible to make it official in Konoha now, or in any other relevant place for that matter. It was stupid of her to joke about it to begin with.  
Yet still …  
It just felt so unfair. Did she truly deserve it all? Just because she had agreed to this stupid mission, she was unable to marry him …? And for what was that sacrifice? For the sake of the village that she had nearly no bonds remaining with?

 _No,_ she straightened herself. _It's for Sasuke's sake. He needs it. Besides ..._

"What about this village, though? I mean … aren't we in charge in Ame now?" she muttered, not sure why she even kept talking about it.

He was silent for a few seconds, thinking over her words before drawling slowly,

"Well … to be honest, I don't fancy going through the local customs and rituals. It would feel pretty awkward to go through one considering that their religion revolves around nobody but myself now. Not to mention that it may compromise us and put our mission at risk."

She didn't say anything, feeling depressed for the reason she couldn't quite grasp herself.  
What on earth was she thinking about anyway …? Who on earth needed these stupid things? A Hyūga, an Uchiha or a nameless kunoichi … it didn't matter so long as she was with him.

"Although …," Hinata could feel her heart skip a beat as everything around became strangely surreal. "I'm virtually the leader of this village right now. Considering that they believe me to be their god, my word is supposed to be law here, don't you think so?"

Hinata raised her eyes, peeking at his face in disbelief, unsure where this was going.

"I guess ..."

"I'm also the head of my clan, so I'm authorized to make decisions like this one on behalf of the Uchiha ..."

The kunoichi blinked a few times, feeling her heart starting to race insanely. Was he about to …? _No, no way …_

"I … think so …?"

"I'm not going to lie, I've been thinking about it ever since that night ... on the roof. You were right; since Yutaka intends to help me to restore the clan, and especially given that we might find even more of possible survivors, I can be with you now. And considering that you've been banished from your own clan, I don't think it would be fair for you to stay as an outcast when we return to Konoha. You deserve to have a family, a home … and … I want you to become my wife."

Her eyes widened in utter shock as she raised her head from his chest, staring into the man's eyes in confusion.

"Are you serious right now?"

His face remained impassive at her question as he simply shrugged.

"I can't imagine meeting anyone more suitable for this role than you. You are strong, beautiful, powerful and caring. Your genes are also good enough for me to not be worried about our future children growing up as weaklings who are unable to protect themselves. You also don't annoy me with useless jabbering ulike most of the girls. In other words, you are perfect for me. So, like I told you, unless you disagree, I want you as my wife."

She just kept staring in his calm, mismatching eyes, feeling completely stunned and unable to believe her own ears.

He actually _meant_ it … he had just proposed her marriage, and that was for real. Well, surely he did it in his own blunt style, but it didn't matter to Hinata – after all, it would be ridiculous to imagine Sasuke being a gallant gentleman.  
Apparently he had given it a lot of thinking, considering his nearly instant reply to her … joke? Right now, it all was so unbelievable that it seemed more like some farce to her. But at the same time, knowing who the Uchiha was … Hinata had no doubt that he truly meant every word of it.

And she herself …

"I … agree?" she squeaked timidly as her own voice betrayed her.

"Well, you tell me."

Clearing her throat after a moment of silence, the Hyūga nodded as her cheeks reddened, muttering,

"I agree, Sasuke. I'd like to marry you."

He smirked, nodding satisfyingly more to himself than to her and then kissing the kunoichi lightly on the lips.

"It's going to be rather difficult, though. Jurisdiction means very little when it comes to the descendants of the old clans like ours."

"O-oh …?" She blinked, confused by the sudden revelation. Now that she thought about it, Hinata realized that she couldn't remember a precedent of a Hyūga ever marrying an Uchiha, and there obviously supposed to be some ... complications.

"Yeah … It's not that simple to become a part of my clan. As you well know, descendants of all the ancient clans have the insignia of their clan imprinted into their chakra signature. It helps various seals and wards, as well as sensory type ninja to recognize the clansmen. Which means that becoming a part of a different clan for real is impossible without changing the very chakra signature, which is a rather delicate process. Not to mention that it's only what I myself have managed to deduce, so it might be even harder than it sounds when we come to it."

"I … I see," Hinata lowered her eyes, biting her lip. While it was shocking to find out that Sasuke actually had been planning this for a while by now, she herself felt a little embarrassed as she had been foolish enough to not consider what he was talking about right now. Said insignia was like a set of keys, allowing the member of a clan to enter its domain, use its possessions and access its documents. And since there had never been an alliance between Hyūga and Uchiha, she obviously couldn't become an Uchiha unless she changed one set of keys to another, speaking figuratively.  
And they certainly didn't have any time to venture into it anytime soon …  
The young woman flinched as she felt his soft touch on her chin, smiling unwillingly as she saw his own warming grin.

"Don't worry. I'm sure that I'll have to visit Konoha to meet Kakashi soon enough, so I'll look for some information concerning this matter on my way. I'm fairly sure that there must be something useful among the old scrolls in the ruins of the Uchiha compound. And even if there is nothing, we'll figure it out. I promise."

Unable to hold back a squeal of delight, Hinata hugged the man's torso tightly, kissing the corner of his mouth.

"I love you, Sasuke."

He kissed her back, running his fingers through her hair.

"You look pretty tired. I think you should rest."

"And you?" asked the Hyūga, looking a bit displeased as she felt that he was going to leave her soon, and she certainly didn't welcome the idea, wanting him to stay as close as possible. Although he was right – the day had been pretty draining, especially the stressful reunion with Hanabi and … what happened afterwards.

"I've been sleeping longer than you. Besides, I need to talk to Orochimaru. On top of that, they've brought the old Akatsuki member, Hidan. I need to get rid of him as soon as possible. I don't know how Naruto feels about it, but to me, the usage of Henge no Jutsu is rather unpleasant."

Hinata grinned teasingly.

"Don't like not being yourself?"

"Do you?"

Her smile faded. He was right, of course. She, of all people, knew everything about suppressing her personality and feelings.

"No. Not at all."

The Uchiha stroked the strands of her black hair gently, giving it an appraising glance.

"It grew since Nami no Kuni … a lot of time has passed since then," he mumbled, staring thoughtfully into nowhere.

She smiled, fixing her forelock.

"Yes. Now that I think about it, it seems like a whole eternity. It's funny to realize that I didn't know you at all just half a year ago."

He suddenly moved his gaze to look into her white eyes in all seriousness, making the young woman feel a bit disturbed all of sudden.

"Hinata … I want to ask you for something, and it feels that right now is the best moment for it." He stopped hesitantly, which made the Hyūga frown. It was too unlike him to hesitate in general, let alone when they were alone. Something was off.

"What is it, Sasuke?" she asked carefully, making him narrow his eyes a bit.

"No matter what I do in the following days … trust me. Please."

"Huh?" Her eyebrows raised in surprise as she looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean? I always trust you, you don't need to ask for it–"

"No, I mean it." He interrupted his betrothed, making her expression become a bit cautious. "The next few days. Even if my actions do not make any sense at all, trust me. That's all I'm asking for."

"Well, you certainly are not making any sense right now–"

"Just promise."

She stared into his eyes for a few seconds before slowly nodding.

"Of course. But you should know that I always trust you no matter what, you don't have to ask for it. I owe you too much, Sasuke. My life belongs to you. No matter what you decide to do with it, I'll accept–"

"No!" He suddenly pushed her away, making the kunoichi squeak in surprise and then frown, sitting on the bed as he turned away from her and sat himself, dropping his legs over the side of the bed and lowering his head. "Don't ever, ever say it again," he growled.

"Say what again?" she whimpered, reaching out to touch his shoulder but stopping midway as he turned his head, meeting her eyes with his bloody red Sharingan.

"You owe me nothing. Don't you dare think of yourself like this, as if you're a slave of some sort. Never again. Your life belongs to you and nobody else. You are not to take anyone's words as an order, including mine. Remember it well."

She narrowed her white eyes, glaring into his red one without any sign of fear as her expression suddenly shifted to the one full of confidence and resolve.

"Don't tell me what to do." She snapped, making the teen flinch at her words, his eyes widening in shock.

And then he sneered, beginning to laugh quietly as his Sharingan deactivated.

"You truly are an amazing woman. Only you could've come up with a reply like this."

She crossed her hands on her chest, snorting and looking away.

"Well, there has to be somebody to put you in your place when you go overboard. And who would that be if not your future wife?"

"Oh huh?" He turned around, crawling closer to her and making the Hyūga give him a brave, somewhat daring look.

"Yeah."

"And where is my place, then?" He asked, cocking his head, looking puzzled and suppressing a smirk.

Hinata gave him a tiny smile, making a welcoming gesture with her hand.

"Here. Alongside me, obviously."

He gave her a deep, passionate kiss, making the kunoichi gasp in surprise, but returning the kiss nonetheless the next second, closing her eyes and hugging his neck.

"It's a shame that I have to go now, then." He said a bit apologetically, slowly backing off.

"A shame indeed. Well, at least …," she yawned, covering her mouth with her palm, "... at least I can have some sleep now. Don't do anything stupid out there," she said jokingly, stretching her body and yawning again.

He cocked his eyebrow, turning away and getting up from the warm bed, activating a seal on his wrist and taking a new black shirt with long sleeves and the Uchiha crest on its back.

"You are the one who usually ends up in trouble, not me."

She rolled her eyes, falling back onto the soft pillows and staring at the ceiling.

"Just please, be careful."

"Hn." He buckled his belt, making Hinata feel a bit envy for a second. Sasuke and Naruto were the only ones who could allow themselves to not wear the Akatsuki outfits outside their rooms due to their _Henge no Jutsu_ , and sometimes she wished to be able to wear something more comfortable.

"So long." He said, draping his old travel cloak over his shoulders and coming close to the door as her worry glance followed his back.  
And then, when she already thought that he would just leave like this, he stopped as his hand touched the door handle, turning his head to the Hyūga and giving her his rarest warm smile.

"Be careful yourself."

She nodded, returning the smile.

"I will. Come back soon, Sasuke." But he already walked out, closing the door behind his back.

The young bride hugged his pillow to her chest, fighting the urge to activate her Byakugan to give him one last look.

And only then the effects of long stress and exhaustion of the day finally hit her, making Hinata close her eyes, covering herself with a blanket and enjoying its warmth against her naked body, as well as the fainting smell of Sasuke on the pillow.

She didn't notice how fast she fell into the bliss of the deep sleep.

Sunken into his thought, Sasuke walked down the stairs towards the Gate, as they called the room Karin had created which was now used for teleporting in and out of the Tower. Reflecting on his feelings concerning the past and, more importantly, the future events, he didn't notice the sound of someone running coming from the lower floors of the building. After all, the Uchiha had quite a lot on his mind at the moment, not to mention that despite being a very stoic man and a splendid ninja, his first sexual experience still left him feel somewhat … pleasantly dizzy, so his thoughts were a bit slow and messy.

That's why the teen nearly flinched as he saw Naruto appear at the staircase right in front him, panting heavily – apparently the blond was running upstairs really fast, which made Sasuke shake his head and collect himself the instant he noticed his friend who looked unusually worried.

"Sasuke! They've made their move!"

"Kusa?"

"Yeah! We've just received a note from Kakashi-sensei!"

The Uchiha nodded intently, mumbling,

"Not the best timing, but oh well … do we have any specific instructions from Kakashi?"

Naruto quickly shook his head, looking a bit unsure.

"Nah, not really … well, we're supposed to strike them in the back now as soon as possible. From what I understood, we're to conquer their country on behalf of the Rain with a back stab while all their ninja are on the front line. So I guess you're to come up with the plan on this one. After all, you're the boss here." The Uzumaki grinned, instantly receiving a cuff on the nape and gasping pretentiously, following the raven haired shinobi as he continued walking downstairs.

"Alright … I think we should stick to my original plan, then. Listen. Go and tell Jun and Hidan to prepare to depart. You are going to follow them, but neither as yourself nor as Ashura – you must create a fake vanguard of your shadow clones. Make … let's say two thousands, that should be enough. Don't let them use any complicated techniques and make each of them have a different face … no, better make them wear masks, that would be easier. Jun and Hidan are to believe that they are in charge of our little army, but you will be the one to control the operation from the shadows. Make sure to avoid casualties as much as possible … although I'm sure you would do that even if I didn't mention it," he grimaced slightly, and Naruto smirked, though not interrupting the Uchiha as they were passing one floor after another. "Basically, this way we can take Kusa over without losing a single Ame ninja, as well as ensure the success of the operation. And one more thing ... make Orochimaru send Kakashi a note with the names of the ones who are going to Kusa."

"Sounds good. I'm on it. Gonna find Jun and the zombie guy now, then," they entered the passage that led to the Gate, and Naruto was about to form the sign for his Henge, but then he grinned wickedly, narrowing his eyes. "By the way, how did it go? Was it as good as they say it is?"

"Just piss off, dobe," Sasuke sighed tiredly, although grinning as well as they stopped before the door to the sealed room that didn't let anyone aside from the Akatsuki members open it. "Try to not screw everything up, will you? This operation is essential to the entire plan."

"Got it, got it. Don't ya worry, it's gonna be a piece of cake," Naruto winked, raising his thumb up, but then his expression shifted, becoming unusually serious. "Don't fail your part yourself, Sasuke. Hyūga are a real pain to deal with. I'm afraid you might underestimate them."

The Uchiha flinched at the unexpected line, frowning at his brother in all but blood. Apparently Naruto had managed to figure his secret plan out … he knew exactly where he was about to head and what he was going to do. And he didn't sell him out to Kakashi ...

"You are not the idiot you used to be," he finally said, looking into the blue eyes of the jinchūriki.

"And you're not the douchebag you used to be, either. Times change, y'know. And so are we." Naruto grinned, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder and clenching it reassuringly.

Sasuke smirked, returning the gesture.

"True that."

"By the way … Orochimaru has finished our rings. Though I guess it's not the best idea for you to take yours to Konoha … "

"Just tell him to hand mine to Hinata. I'll take it after we're finished."

Naruto nodded, smiling cheerfully as Sasuke grinned before turning away and entering the room.

Just like they had planned, Yutaka was already there, leaning against the wall with his hands crossed on the chest and his eyes closed.

"Thank you for not being late," said Sasuke, closing the door behind his back and coming closer to the man.

Yutaka's eyes snapped open as looked at his senior impassively.

"We are shinobi. We can't afford being late. Anyway … how may I assist you here?"

The teen came to the middle of the room, rapidly channeling his chakra into the Rinnegan.

"I'm going to Konoha now. Should anyone ask, you don't know where I am, even if Hinata asks you. If it feels to be necessary, tell them that I went to Kusa to ensure the success of Jun, Hidan and Naruto."

The man nodded, frowning a little bit as he felt the immense mass of chakra accumulating nearby.

"Got it. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Sasuke turned his head to his clansman. "When I come back, I probably won't be alone. If you see me, pretend that I'm an intruder and act accordingly."

The man's eyebrow cocked skeptically, but he didn't ask any questions to the younger Uchiha's relief.

"As you wish."

"That's all, then. Alright … I guess I've infused more than enough chakra. Let's try it," Sasuke mumbled, wincing at the flash pain that pierced his skull, but not closing his left eye, focusing on the certain spot right in front of him.

It happened nearly instantly; the rift in the space has opened, making both the Uchiha gasp in awe.

"T-That's ..." Yutaka just stared at the rift, too impressed to formulate his thoughts.

"Yeah …," Sasuke muttered, staring into the clearly visible empty room of the hospital in Konoha. "It's another technique of my left eye … I've seen a certain person use it before, so I assumed that I could attain it as well. Although it seems that it doesn't take as much chakra when I'm not going into another dimension … I guess I've wasted a bit too much," he frowned but then grinned excitingly, studying the rift that looked exactly like the ones that Kaguya had used in their faithful fight.

"A different dimension …?" Yutaka mumbled, clearly puzzled as Sasuke waved dismissively.

"Yeah. I'll tell you more about it when I return. For now, you have your instructions. I'm going."

"Take care."

Sasuke flinched, stopping just before entering the rift.

Just what was wrong with all of them? Did they really think of him as if he was some weakling who couldn't do anything on his own?

 _No,_ Hinata's soft voice echoed in his imagination, _We care for you because we love you._

Shaking his head and dismissing the mirage, Sasuke stepped forward, crossing the border between the two places and then severing the chakra link, letting the rift close itself the same second.

It only took a few seconds for the door of the room to open, the familiar back covered by strands of notably grown pink hair showing up to the man.

"Yes, just take the report to Tsunade-sama. Be careful, they contain very important data concerning the condition of Gai-san's leg, so don't lose anything like you usually do!" Sakura exclaimed discontentedly, facing somebody Sasuke couldn't see as she stood with her back to him, not noticing the man's presence.

"Yes, Sakura-senpai! I won't fail you!" The girl squeaked, bowing down and thus letting the Uchiha see her face partly, as well as her bright orange hair.

"You better not, Moegi …," Sakura nearly growled, making the girl flinch and run away, nearly tripping on her way. "What a clumsy brat ..."

"She reminds me of someone from back in the days, now that I think about it," Sasuke said casually, making the pink haired kunoichi jump in surprise and turn around instantly with her jade eyes open as wide as possible in surprise and shock.

"S-Sasuke-kun! What … how …?"

"Be quiet and close the door. I want to talk to you in private, so let's avoid drawing the unnecessary attention."

The girl nodded quickly, slamming the door and coming closer to the Uchiha, still staring at him in disbelief.

"How come you're here in my office all of sudden, Sasuke-kun …? When did you return?" she mumbled, unable to move her eyes off her old crush.

"Just a few seconds ago. I've used my Rinnegan to teleport to this place. Say now … are Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino in the village at the moment?"

The medic-nin frowned, and her expression changed quickly. Apparently she realized that he didn't ask about these two specifically without a good reason to it, and said reason obviously had to have something to do with Hinata.  
Not to mention that his rather cold greeting didn't make it any better to her for sure, but the Uchiha knew that he hardly had any time for sentiments.

"Yes, they are supposed to be here … why …?"

"Good. I need to talk to them, as well as with Nara Shikamaru. And to you as well."

Sakura blinked a few times, feeling her cheeks reddening as he mentioned her along with the others.

"I … did something happen to Hinata …?" she mumbled quietly, feeling baffled and confused.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise at the mention of the name of his bride. Has Sakura figured it out on her own …? Or rather somebody had told her?

"No … yes. A lot of things have happened, but it doesn't matter at the moment. Are you aware of the plans of Hyūga Hiashi?" he asked a bit impatiently, wanting to finish his business in the village as soon as possible. He didn't expect it to feel so bothering to be here again all of sudden, and his former teammate that stood right in front of him now was a perfect reminder of where exactly he has come to.

"The plans …? No … I ..."

"It's an S-rank mission concerning the security of Konoha. They are going after Hinata soon, intending to execute her for joining Akatsuki."

Sakura nodded slowly in understanding. Of course, the rumors about their former humble classmate had spread around Konoha at the speed of light. And until this moment, the kunoichi actually suspected that Sasuke certainly had something to do with her shocking betrayal … it even made Sakura start wondering if he had decided to betray the village again as well.

Yet here he was. He had come to Konoha bluntly without really trying to hide, apparently intending to go and look for Kiba and Shino after they would be done talking.

Which could only mean ...

"You know where she is, don't you?" The pink haired girl whispered, receiving the well expected nod in response.

"I do. Listen …" He took a deep breath, clearly having a hard time staying patient and gentle ... well, in his own way. "I'm sorry that I don't have enough time to explain everything to you. It's a really long story, and I believe that I'm very short on time. Right now, I have to ask for two things." His gaze was warm and empathic, which made Sakura's suspicion get washed away the instant she looked into the depth of his eyes.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun. What is it?" she asked, finally feeling relieved.

He didn't hate her. And he was truly sorry, just like he had been back when he had left the village half a year ago. He hadn't changed back to the worse, and he wanted to protect Konoha.  
That was all she needed to know.

"First of all, don't mention seeing me to Kakashi or anyone who can spread the news, at least not until the morning. It's essential for him to not know, because I suspect that he wants to use me just like the Third had used Itachi. I don't want to become the public enemy of Konoha for him to be able to divert the people's hatred to me, so I've come up with a plan to prevent it."

"Huh?" Sakura gasped, looking at him in disbelief as if he had just made a horrible joke. "Kakashi-sensei would never–"

"Neither of us know what he could or couldn't do. I have my right to ensure my own safety, and I will do so, because I intend to return to the village for good when this mission is complete. Besides, nobody's going to lose anything in case if I'm wrong. So … will you do as I ask?"

She looked at him for a few seconds, unsure how exactly to react.

He had just said that he was going to come back to Konoha … it made her feel truly happy, because deep in her soul she had suspected that this wasn't going to ever happen.  
On the other hand, he had made such an accusation towards Kakashi-sensei … was he just being paranoid, or perhaps Sasuke actually knew something she didn't which led him to think this way?

In either case …

"Sure. I won't tell anybody. What else did you want to discuss?" she asked, smiling sheepishly.

"This," his only hand slid into the pocket of his black cloak, taking out and showing the kunoichi a tiny vial with familiar dark red liquid.

"Is this–"

"It's a blood sample. I want you to test it as soon as possible, and tell me your conclusion on the analyses."

Sakura frowned again, taking the vial and looking at it incredulously.

"Whose is this …? And what exactly do you expect me to see or not to see?"

The Uchiha sighed, looking away.

"It's Hinata's. Orochimaru had done something to her, so she's received Kaguya's kekkei genkai, the bone manipulation. I want you to study the changes in her DNA, because I'm afraid that he did something of what nobody else is aware."

The kunoichi gasped, squeezing the vial in her hand.

"Do you think that it could've led her to join Akatsuki ...? That he affected her mind somehow?"

"Yeah. He's a member of the group as well, after all," he lied instantly without hesitation, looking into Sakura's eyes. "So, will you do this?"

She quickly nodded, putting the sample into the pocket of her white robe.

"Yes, of course. It will be ready in three to four hours, so you should come back by midnight."

"I don't know when exactly I'll be able to come back. Do you usually lock this room? Perhaps you should just leave it here on the table instead of waiting for me for who knows how long. I bet you're pretty tired by the evening, so don't exhaust yourself anymore. I won't be able to stay for longer than a few seconds anyway."

She nodded, looking a bit disappointed at first, but then smiling widely, apparently realizing that he actually cared for her well-being, which was new and very … pleasant.

He turned away, gripping the door's handle.

"Sasuke-kun!" the young man stopped, turning his head slightly and glancing at her questioningly. "I …," Sakura blushed, lowering her head. "I'm truly happy that you've returned. And that you're going to return again. Please, be careful ..."

 _Not that again …,_ he fought the urge to growl and roll his eyes.

"I will," he said, turning away. "Please, be quick. I don't have much time," saying that, he walked out of the room, followed by the worried gaze of his former teammate.

Fortunately enough, most people in the hospital were too busy to pay him the amount of attention necessary to recognize Sasuke who hadn't quite showed himself in public in Konoha for more than five years, so he went out of the building without any trouble, breathing the warm air of the familiar streets and feeling happy as the passionately hated smell of the hospital changed to the vast spectrum of flavors of different flowers, food and the other things he hadn't smelled for a while by now.

Which reminded him that he also hadn't eaten anything for longer than two days, and his stomach wasn't very fond of it.

Closing his left eye to hide the Rinnegan just in case and letting a burst of chakra out of his body in the different directions, the Uchiha took the hood of his cloak on and, lowering his head to hide his face, walked down the street, glancing around to find the suitable place.  
Both Inuzuka and Akimichi were the sensory types. If Sakura was right and they were in the village at the moment, they certainly would feel his chakra soon enough and track him down themselves. Without a doubt, they would try to contact him the instant they'd spot him.

And Sasuke could allow himself to enjoy some dishes meanwhile.

Stopping at the entrance of one of multiple small eateries and carefully looking for any sign of somebody he used to know back in the years, he walked in, coming close to the table in the corner of the room and sitting down, picking the list of laminated paper – a short menu.  
There weren't that many visitors at the moment, so the hall was half-empty, and the waitress came to him in no time, smiling cheerfully.

"Are you ready to make an order?" she asked, clearly not recognizing the man as his left eye was still closed.

"Yeah. I want some onigiri, a steak and a salad. And a cup of beer."

"Will be ready in no time!" she winked at him, turning around and striding toward the kitchen.

Sasuke let out a heavy sigh, finally relaxing and taking his time to look around.

There weren't many ninja in this place; in fact, aside from himself, only three genin were eating and chatting on the opposite side of the hall, and they clearly couldn't care less of anything what was going on around them.  
The Uchiha smirked. Just a year ago, such naivety probably would've irritated him. But right now, he couldn't see it as something different than the beauty of life. That's how children were supposed to be – careless, goofy, naive. That's what they were fighting for – to allow the future generation to prolong the heavenly time of ignorant childhood as much as possible.  
Children were not supposed to kill and die.

The waitress came back shortly with a large cup, carefully putting it on the table in front of him and smiling again, blushing a little bit.

"Here, your beer. If you'll be needing anything else, just call me. My name is Megumi!"

 _Oh. This again._ He already managed to forget how attractive he seemed to the opposite gender after being basically isolated from the commoners for quite some time by now.  
But this time, somehow he didn't feel any negative emotions towards this woman. After all, she was a simple human with a supposedly very boring and monotonous life. Could he blame her for the desire to find somebody who could make her existence less drab?

"Alright. Thank you. My name is Sasuke," he said politely, giving her a tiny yet fascinating grin. He would probably never see her again, but it didn't matter – it was nothing for him, but perhaps now her day would seem to be much better to her.

And he probably was right in his assumption – the woman smiled widely, blushing even deeper and covering her mouth with her palm sheepishly before quickly walking away again.

Taking a small sip, the Uchiha couldn't help but reflect on what had just happened. The strangest thing was that now he felt better as well – as if something intangible changed in the air, making his unwilling presence in Konoha a little more pleasant than it was supposed to be.

But it couldn't last long, of course. Just as he had anticipated, the familiar pair of shinobi showed up in the hall, instantly turning towards his corner and coming close to Sasuke resolutely, stopping before the table and peering at him searchingly with suspicion, suddenly losing all of their resolve as their eyes met.

"Long time no see, Shino, Kiba," he said flatly, taking another sip.

"Sasuke! What's the meaning–"

"Be quiet, Kiba. Somebody might her us," Aburame interrupted his teammate, making the brown haired teen scowl. "Sasuke. Mind if we sit down as well?"

The Uchiha shrugged.

"Feel free."

They sat in front of him, not even caring to look at the menu – apparently they felt really impatient and worry due to the continuous lack of the news concerning their third teammate, especially since they most likely knew about her joining the new Akatsuki.

"So … we've received your signal. You wanted us to come, which makes me assume that you have something important to talk about. And considering the small common ground we share, the topic is fairly obvious," said Shino quietly, staring at Sasuke from under his dark glasses.

"Yeah … first of all, both of you may calm down. Hinata is perfectly fine and safe."

"Oh really?! And here I thought that being a member of–"

"Kiba!" Shino barked, making Inuzuka groan in irritation.

"Okay, okay! But you got my point! How the hell can she be safe with _them_ around?"

Sasuke sighed, sipping the refreshing liquid again.

"Said 'they' are, in fact, me, Naruto, Hanabi and some other people you probably are not familiar with. The group is fake; it's been formed by the Sixth in order to stop the attacks coming from Ame and to protect Konoha from other possible threats."

To his surprise, both of the teens simply looked at each other understandingly, being quiet for a few seconds.

"So the attack of Kusa ..."

"It's being dealt with right now. Naruto is in charge. In disguise, obviously."

Shino let out a sigh of relief while Kiba covered his face with his hands, shaking his head.

"Damn it … and here we already thought that you bastard have betrayed Konoha again."

The Uchiha's expression remained impassive – after all, they had their reasons to assume that he had.

"No. It's actually quite the opposite. I intend to come back to this place for good after we're done with this mission, but I need the two of you to help me."

"And Hinata? What about her?" asked Shino. It surprised Sasuke that they didn't refuse to cooperate with him the instant he mentioned it, which was good. Apparently they somewhat trusted him, after all, even though they probably should've not in his opinion. But it would be stupid to complain, of course.

"She will come back with me, obviously. It would be ridiculous to let my wife stay away from the place I've chosen to live in, don't you think so?" he asked, barely holding back a childish smirk as their faces slowly changed.

Shino remained silent, just staring at him with his eyes open wider than usual under the glasses, while Kiba gasped, nearly whispering,

"No … you didn't … it can't be ..."

The Uchiha shrugged casually, finishing his beer.

"Sorry for not inviting the two of you, we've decided to make it private. Which brings me back to the reason why I've come to talk to you in the first place. It has something to do with my plan, but we need a more secure place to discuss it. Let's make it this way; the two of you will now go and find Shikamaru Nara while I'm finishing my meal. Meet me at the entrance of the Uchiha district, and we'll talk about everything."

Shino nodded calmly, gripping Kiba's sleeve who still was a bit spaced out, apparently too shocked by Sasuke's words, and taking his teammate out of the table, walking him to the exit.

And just as they had left, Megumi showed up with the tray filled with plates of food which he could smell even from the opposite side of the room.

He was dead hungry, after all.

* * *

The night was unusually quiet and warm for this time of the year, which wasn't a very good sign in the eyes of the superstitious head of the Hyūga clan. Not that it mattered that much to him – barely another thing that made his mood a bit worse.

He had spent a few days on planning and thinking of the possible consequences of the upcoming secret raid to Amegakure, and as much as he wanted to believe in their success, the man had realized it rather quickly that they were most likely doomed to fail.  
If Hinata truly was a part of Akatsuki now, it meant that she had become very powerful and dangerous as she was. And although he had the ultimate counter for whatever power she could've acquired, it was meant for her and her _alone_. His plan didn't consider nine … well, eight, counting Orochimaru out, dangerous S-class ninja to deal with as well. And even if the Sannin took his subordinates out of there for a while, there still would remain at least five more deadly foes to deal with.

Which was why Hiashi had decided that it was a sign of fate when the Sixth informed the council of the village that, to their luck, Akatsuki had launched an attack against Kusagakure the instant said hidden village had stricken Konoha, and that three out of the five ninja that would be on their way should the Hyūga clan have initiated their operation before this moment had been spotted on the battlefield, leaving only two aside from Hinata herself to deal with.

In other words, right now was the best possible opportunity to make their move. They wouldn't get a better chance, of that the man was absolutely sure. Which was why he was quickly packing the multiple scrolls, already dressed up in his combat outfit, preparing to depart as soon as possible.

Like many people in his clan, Hiashi believed in fate. And right now he also wanted to believe that they were destined to succeed. The only thing he could ask for now was a bit more luck … perhaps one more trump card into his sleeve to ensure the completion of their sacred mission …

A knock on the door made him flinch, raising his head and looking through it with his Byakugan.

"Enter." The door slid to the side, letting Kō walk into the small storage room.

"Hiashi-sama. Everything's ready. We can go any second now."

"Good … good." The man nodded to himself, raising up from the floor and sealing the package of various scrolls into his wrist. "What is it?" he barked, seeing as Kō's face appeared a bit troubled. It was barely notable, but like everyone else in their lineage, Hiashi was naturally good at reading facial expressions, so the tiny sign of disarray didn't slip away from the head of the noble clan.

"It's … we have a visitor."

Hiashi's eyebrow cocked in confusion as he frowned.

"So? Tell them to come tomorrow, we don't have time for this right now."

"It's the Uchiha."

The older man gasped indignantly, clenching his fists.

"What? Why … did he say anything specific about the reason to his visit?"

"He wants to talk to you."

That treacherous bastard … what game was he playing, coming to them bluntly like this? Still … whatever it was, Hiashi couldn't refuse to meet him now. Aside from many other things, on top of everything, it could put their plan at risk … the boy was very smart and could easily figure out that something was off.

"Well then ..."

Nearly storming towards the gates of the Hyūga compound and passing by the group of fifteen Hyūga ninja who were standing there in the yard, prepared for the operation and waiting for his orders, Hiashi spotted the teen nearly instantly – the former nukenin was leaning against the fence, gazing impassively right at him.

"Hyūga Hiashi," he nodded politely in acknowledgement as he approached him, greeting the man which nearly made the usually calm and collected older shinobi scowl.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said, nodding as well. "How can I help you?"

"I know about your plan … I've come to join your group."

Hiashi gasped as his heart began racing. What on earth was the meaning of this …?

"I beg your pardon …?"

Sasuke's face remained as emotionless as before.

"Don't pretend, there is nobody around who can overhear us. I know that you're going to Amegakure in order to execute your daughter. I've come to assist you at that."

The Hyūga clan's head frowned, refusing to believe his ears.

"Last time we talked, you promised me to track her down, and–"

"And I've done just that. I know where exactly she is, and I'm ready to take you there, as well as to help you to deal with the other Akatsuki members."

They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds while Hiashi was rapidly thinking, weighting out the possibilities and opportunities the Uchiha's offer was providing them.

"What's your gain in this deal?"

The sinister smirk the teen gave him sent a shiver down Hiashi's back.

"In return, I want us to form an official alliance between our clans right now, as well as announce it in public that I'm helping you to secure the safety of the village. You see, I'm rather infamous in Konoha. I intend to whitewash my name to get a fresh start afterwards. If you agree, as my part of the bargain, you can have my vow that Hyūga Hinata will cease to exist very soon."

Hiashi was impressed and pleased to say the least. Not only the boy was very cunning and smart, but he also wanted to be on friendly terms with his clan. Who knows, perhaps one day he would become a perfect match for one of the Hyūga female off-springs … the older man couldn't hope for a better future for his clan.

However …

"I'm afraid we don't have enough time for the official procedure right now, Uchiha-dono. We must hurry to reach Amegakure as soon as possible while they are busy with Kusa."

"If you accept my offer, then you have much more time than you believe you do. I will take everyone to Ame with the space-time jutsu of my Rinnegan the instant we are done with the formalities." The young man smirked, and Hiashi couldn't hold back a grin as well.

This was the trump card he had been hoping to receive. Fate was on his side, after all.


	21. Seeking Answers

**Chapter 21. Seeking Answers**

Hiashi cleared his throat, peering straight into the Uchiha's impassive mismatching eyes searchingly and perhaps even daringly, as if trying to see through the mask the boy was constantly wearing on his face that always appeared to be completely devoid of any emotion. To the amusement and, at the same time, to the apprehension of the Hyūga clan's head, it seemed to be absolutely impossible – and the man was finding it rather ironic that even with his famous eyes that could see through anything he wasn't able to read this young man's face at all.

It also meant that he was about to get himself a very powerful ally, and it was right in time to say the least, given what they were going to do this night. The nearly suicidal operation was about to turn into an ensured success now, thanks to this boy.

Perhaps it was their destiny, after all? With the boy by his side, he would ensure the safety of his clan for many years ahead. And ...

Mayhap ... he could even help them against _that_ man …?

Hiashi nearly shook his head, annoyed by the sudden idea that was so tempting and insane at the same time. After all, _he_ hadn't lied; everything was going in the exact way _he_ had told him it would. Hinata had broken out of her cage, just like that man had predicted, and was now getting more and more powerful with every day passing. She needed to be killed as soon as possible before it would become too late for them, there was no other way.

After all, he had no reason to believe that the boy would want to help him if he found out the truth …

"So, Uchiha-dono … seeing as you don't mind the traditional Covenant of Alliance between two ancient clans, I concur as well. However, considering the circumstances of our … deal … I understand you probably have some special conditions. I'd like to hear them out before we seal this agreement and get down to what's supposed to come afterward."

They were standing on the opposite sides of the ornamented pulpit in the middle of the ceremonial hall of the Hyūga compound, surrounded by nearly the entire clan of Byakugan users who were staring at the two of them silently – nobody dared to make a single sound in this epochal moment.

Ignoring everyone but the older shinobi that was standing in front if him, Sasuke smiled inwardly and said,

"First of all, I want to make it clear – I'm loyal to the Hyūga clan of Konohagakure, not to _you_ personally or to any other Hyūga in particular. Which means that should some of your clansmen ever decide to betray Konoha, I will stay by the side of those who remain loyal to the village. Same goes for any member of my own family, of course."

A wave of indignant whispers flew across the accommodation, and for a split second it seemed to Hiashi that the Uchiha grinned triumphantly as his gaze met the indifferent eyes of Kō who was standing right next to them, writing down the additional points to the scroll that was supposed to become the Covenant once Sasuke and Hiashi would finish their negotiations and sign it.

But the man brushed this ridiculous thought away nearly instantly as the teen looked into his eyes again – apparently it was but his imagination and the play of light coming of the nearest torches, after all.

Besides, his reasoning was pretty much justified. Considering that the boy already knew what really had happened to his own clan, he obviously couldn't ignore the possibility of the same happening to Hyūga someday, so Hiashi couldn't really blame him for taking precautions. In fact, the man found that pretty smart, much like every move Sasuke had made so far. And although the Hyūga patriarch would never admit it to anyone, he was beginning to actually like the boy.

"That is acceptable. But I hope you understand that this is going to be mutual, Uchiha-dono. Our village has some … sad history with your clan." To his surprise, the teen didn't react to his taunt at all, nodding casually instead as if it was nothing at all to him.

"I also want a bride," he suddenly added, taking everyone completely off-guard.

Hiashi's eyebrow twitched and his eyes widened slightly in shock while everyone in the hall became dead silent once again.

"Excuse me …?" He mumbled, unsure if he had heard him correctly. This was exactly what he had anticipated just few minutes ago when they had met at the entrance to their compound … could it even be possible?

Sasuke sighed, looking at him as if the man was but a silly child who didn't understand the obvious things.

"I intend to restore my clan, so I want to marry a Hyūga woman of the Main House one day, whenever I decide that the time has come. Your clan is known to be the strongest in Konoha aside from the Uchiha, isn't it? That's why I don't see a possibly better opportunity to ensure that my future off-springs are not weak by any chance. Besides, it would only make the ties between our clans stronger, don't you think so?"

Hiashi gasped, and so did most of the ninja around them who were listening to their conversation in complete awe.  
Not only they were about to witness a historical agreement between arguably the most powerful clans their world had ever known, but they also could see it first hand – the living legend Uchiha Sasuke was, and he certainly was making quite an impact with such ambitious claims, only strengthening the impression.

"I … suppose that can be arranged," Hiashi uttered finally after a short pause. "However, since we're talking about the Main House, I must warn you that if the woman of your choice will object, nobody is going to force her to become your betrothed."

The corner of the boy's mouth twitched, and although Hiashi couldn't see any kind of ill intent in the young man's plans aside from pursuing his own goals, which wasn't a bad thing at all in his opinion, for some reason which he failed to grasp this small smirk the boy's lips curved into made the man want to second-guess his decision for a short moment.  
However, Hinata's father was a very rational and calculating man himself – and these were mere emotions, nothing more, nothing less. He couldn't afford showing any sign of weakness or hesitating in front of his family, and certainly not in front of the head of the Uchiha clan.

"Of course," Sasuke replied, sounding a bit irritated. "Who do you think I am, a slaver? This would only be possible if the woman I choose agrees to my proposal willingly."

Hiashi nodded slowly, allowing himself to let out a barely notable sigh of relief. His vis-à-vis didn't turn to be an immoral egoist as many people in the village said he was, after all.

"Anything else?"

Sasuke's smile vanished as he said,

"Yeah. Just one more thing. Any children of mine will be members of the Uchiha clan, even if they are born with the Byakugan. I shall not allow any seals to be placed on them, either. Therefore I suppose they would need to be allowed to study some basic techniques of their dōjutsu."

Ignoring multiple murmurs coming from here and there, Hiashi nodded approvingly again. Fortunately enough, this was a standard procedure for those Hyūga females who decided to marry someone not from their clan, and an Uchiha would not be an exception here.

"Without a doubt. If such children are born, they will receive the same rights the Branch House members have in our clan."

"That's fair." The teen activated his Sharingan, glancing at the scroll for a moment as Kō was finishing writing down the last sentence, and nodded. "I've read it, and I'm fine with every point we have made. On behalf of the Uchiha clan, I'm ready to sign it."

Putting the pen aside, Kō handed the scroll to the young shinobi gently and bowed down, avoiding to look into his eyes.

"Please, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke raised his only hand – the bright purple chakra embraced the tip of his pointer, and then the teen carefully pressed it to the bottom of the scroll, holding his finger still for a second before moving it away – the stamp of his personal chakra signature was perfectly visible, imprinted into the special chakra sensitive paper.

"Please, Hiashi-sama." The older man did the same, not moving his eyes away from those of the Uchiha, still trying to figure him out, even though realizing that it was already too late anyway.

"It is settled, then," the head of Hyūga turned to his people, giving the crowd a warm smile. "Rejoice, my dear clansmen! This is a truly amazing day, to all of us!"

The hall got consumed by the wave of loud applause which made Sasuke wince inadvertently for a second, but fortunately enough nobody noticed that as Hiashi was cheering his multiple family members.

"Everyone who hasn't been assigned for any missions tomorrow, you may celebrate this glorious event until the morning. As for the special group–"

"Proceed to the nearest lobby. We will depart shortly," Sasuke's calm yet rather loud voice interrupted the older shinobi, making him frown.

Said group hesitated, awaiting for the affirmation of the Uchiha's order.

"What are you waiting for?" Hiashi barked, making some of them flinch. "Do as Uchiha-dono said. The rest, dismissed." A few ninja nodded, and everyone else finally allowed themselves to talk freely, making the hall sink into the cacophony of multiple excited voices.

Hiashi turned to Sasuke, glaring at him with slight displease.

"I understand that you are in the position to give orders to my people during missions according to our agreement unless they contradict my own, and especially right now, but please, Uchiha-dono, avoid interrupting me like this in future. My authority must not be questioned among my people."

The teen shrugged simply, watching Kō walking towards the exit alongside the other few Hyūga.

"Yeah. It's just that I thought that you didn't want you and your people to get noticed leaving the village."

The man gave him a baffled look, apparently not quite getting his point.

"Well, it's true, but what does it have to do with–"

"You guys were gathering near the gates, and it is possible ... no, likely that the area is being watched constantly by ANBU. Haven't you considered the possibility of a trap being set by the Sixth in order to compromise you?" Sasuke asked, sounding curious and somewhat lazy, as if they were sharing a cheap chat instead of discussing the matters of utmost secrecy.

Hiashi gasped again, completely stunned by him voicing out such an assumption.

Of course, this idea had come to the man's mind before, but the Hyūga patriarch had decided that it was nothing but him being paranoid as usual. What would be the point for the Sixth to do such thing? Of course, he wouldn't be foolish enough to back them up should their operation fail, but to set up a sabotage himself …?  
And apparently since even the Uchiha was thinking this way about his old sensei now, this actually wasn't impossible …  
This boy was a true blessing to their clan, without a doubt.

"I … I see ..."

"That's why I thought it would be wise not to open the portal outdoors. And it would be plain stupid to ask them to get back inside after they would've got outside for the second time this night, don't you think so?"

For the first time in many years, Hiashi was about to blush, feeling incredibly embarrassed. Sure, he always was considered to be one of the brightest minds and strongest shinobi in Konoha, but the Uchiha was just something else. He was outplaying him on every field they met, and the man could only thank fate silently for not making them enemies.  
The man collected himself, nodding again and retaining his own calm mask.

"I understand. It was a wise decision indeed. Now then … should we get started?"

"Not quite yet." Sasuke turned to face him, "I didn't want to include this into the formal part for obvious reasons, but I'd like to share a word with you in private."

Hiashi looked around them with his Byakugan, checking everyone carefully – but apparently nobody was trying to overhear them now as the others were too busy with discussing what had just happened.

"I believe it is safe to talk here, though we better do it quietly. What did you want to discuss?"

The Uchiha leaned against the pulpit, looking away.

"It's mostly about the marriage issue."

"Huh? I thought you said it's going to be later in the future?" Hiashi stared at him questioningly.

"Yeah," Sasuke said slowly, hesitating for a second. "However, as the fellow head of a clan, I want to make sure that you understand that when the time comes, the ritual has to take part in _our_ domain, not in yours. Which means that as the only surviving Uchiha, I will be the one to perform it."

The man nodded quickly, finally getting the point.

"I see. And you are not that familiar with the way it is supposed to be done, are you?"

"Not exactly ..." Sasuke drawled slowly. "I did some research on the matter, and I know how to do this. What I wanted to ask you is if there is some specific information I must know concerning the Hyūga chakra insignia? I've seen it many times with my Sharingan, and it looks a bit complicated. I don't want to damage the signature accidentally."

Hiashi smiled warmly, giving the teen who looked a bit sheepish a slightly teasing yet friendly, even fatherly look.

"I understand your concern. And it's not a simple question, so you did a right thing to ask me about it, especially since some of us may not make it back to the village alive after this night." The raven haired boy's face remained impassive as the man continued, "Traditionally, concerning the specifics of the past relationship between our clans, your future bride would be forced to receive the Caged Bird Seal. However, now that we have this alliance … it is not necessary anymore, so all the woman of your choice will have to do is forming the specific sequence of hand signs – Bird, Boar, Dragon, Hare, Tiger, Snake – and then releasing a significant amount of her chakra in order to give up on her legacy and thus to get rid of the Hyūga insignia. And while I understand your desire to do it on your own perfectly, I still would like you to notify me beforehand when the time comes."

His grin looked a bit disturbing once again, but then it turned to be rather polite and friendly as Sasuke turned his head to face the man.

"Of course, Hyūga-dono. You will be the first one to know about the date, have no doubt."

The head of the Hyūga clan smiled warmly again, clenching Sasuke's shoulder tightly and reassuringly.

"It would be an honor for me, Uchiha-dono."

The teen nodded, turning away again and stepping down from the plinth.

"We should get going now, then."

They walked into the hallway a minute later – the sixteen Hyūga ninja aside from Hiashi were present there, clearly waiting for their arrival in complete silence and looking at the two shinobi expectantly as they approached the group.

However, taking a look at them with his left eye, Sasuke frowned. All of them aside from Kō were from the Branch House – the chakra that was radiating slightly from the seals on their foreheads was clearly visible to him.  
And on top of that … their expressions bothered the teen the most. They looked completely resigned, each of them, actually – as if they were absolutely sure that their death was about to come, and they had already given up on it beforehand.

Sasuke clenched his fist, narrowing his eyes slightly.

 _Just what is Hiashi planning to do…?_

"I understand you are already fully prepared for what's to come, so I'll only give you a short briefing," said Sasuke, looking across the small vanguard that didn't react to his words at all. "I'm going to open a portal directly into the Akatsuki hideout. It's unknown what and who awaits us there, so be ready to face literally _anything_ after you pass through the rift. Once we are inside, I want all of you to keep your Byakugan deactivated and your chakra concealed until we have no choice but to engage a combat. We must move as stealthy as possible inside the building, and according to the intel we've received, they have two strong sensory type ninja in their current line-up, so it's the only way to make it possible. Any questions?"

None followed, and Hiashi added, clearing his throat,

"Kō, stay close to me no matter what. The others, you are to guard us from any possible threat. That goes for Uchiha-dono as well – you must protect him with your lives, so–"

The uncovered glimpse of hatred in the teen's eyes made the man break off and give him a puzzled look.

"I don't need any kind of protection, Hyūga-dono. With all due respect, I'm far more powerful than any of you."

 _So I've hurt your pride, huh?_ Hiashi held back the urge to smirk. _The nerve …_

"Of course. I apologize, Uchiha-dono. Now then, I suppose we should go now, then. Our time is running out."

Sasuke's features softened, confirming the man's earlier assumption. The young shinobi turned away, channeling the chakra into his left eye. A mere second had passed before the broad rift has opened, making the best of the best shinobi and kunoichi of the Hyūga clan gasp in amazement and awe – they could see a gloomy, foreign dark passage right in front of them.

Empty, fortunately enough.

Sasuke stepped in, passing through the breach in the fabric of reality, and, confirming that it was safe, he gave them a signal to move out.

The rift closed as soon as the last Hyūga walked through it, and although the desire to use their dōjutsu was very tempting for each of them, they were disciplined enough not to disobey his order, much to Sasuke's relief. Even though he himself knew for sure that there was no threat around for them right now, they weren't supposed to be able to scan the building with Byakugan for obvious reasons, and they certainly would do just that now that they weren't busy fighting someone.

 _All that remains is to lure them into the right direction and to get away … Don't fail me, Yutaka ..._

"So, what's our next move? None of us is familiar with this building's infrastructure, and we can't use our eyes," suddenly said Kō, looking at Sasuke thoughtfully without any sign of aggression.

The Uchiha ignored the stare, striding onward through the dirty passage that looked more like a service tunnel of some sort rather than a corridor of headquarters of Akatsuki.

"Yeah. But unlike you guys, Hinata can and will use her Byakugan as soon as we do something to draw her attention. I'm fairly sure that she's going to come to face us on her own once she spots us here, so all we'll have to do will be waiting for her arrival."

"But how exactly are you going to make her notice us? I thought you said we're supposed to be stealthy–" before Kō could finish his sentence, Sasuke formed a hand sign, and a loud explosion echoed through the building, shaking it's very foundation.

The Hyūga ninja stopped as Hiashi and Kō gasped in confusion, apparently unsure how to react to the unexpected move of the Uchiha.

"What on earth are you doing? They all will definitely notice us now!" Hiashi barked, clenching his fists and giving Sasuke an angry glare.

The teen turned his head, glancing at them impassively.

"No. They will notice the explosion on the other side of the building, whereas Hinata surely will use her dōjutsu to check what is going on and thus will see us down here."

Hiashi's features softened slowly, though he still looked a bit worried.

"Don't you think she may bring reinforcements along?"

The Uchiha shook his head slowly, walking forward again.

"No … I don't think she would do that. But even if she does, I'll take care of them," he replied confidently, which made everyone relax visibly a little bit.

 _He doesn't think she would do that … but how on earth can he know? As far as I'm concerned, the two of them barely have interacted throughout their years in the Academy …,_ thought Hiashi, but before an idea could form in his mind, they entered a spacious round shaped hall – apparently they happened to be on one of the lowest levels of the building, perhaps even underground, seeing as the whole place was covered with dirt, web, moss and dust, and multiple rusty pipes were running across the walls and the ceiling high above them.

And in the middle of the hall stood a single man dressed in an infamous Akatsuki coat. His hair was black with reddish tint, and his eyes …

Hiashi stopped, activating his Byakugan, and so did everyone else – since they obviously were about to get into a fight, further hiding would be pointless anyway.

His white eyes widened.

"Uchiha-domo …! It's ..."

"Yeah … I see," Sasuke uttered quietly, stepping toward the man and turning his head to look at Hiashi over his shoulder. "I hope you understand that it's my duty as the clan's head to handle this."

The older man nodded, bowing in respect.

"Of course. I couldn't expect any less of you."

The raven haired boy turned away, meeting the emotionless gaze of Yutaka who was waiting for him to make a move first.

"I'll take him out of here. You better stay in this hall and wait. I'm sure she'll be here shortly."

"I knew it was a mistake to let you get away from Amegakure the last time we spotted you," Yutaka's voice echoed through the hall, nearly making Sasuke smirk victoriously.

 _It was a right decision to make you a part of this plan … all the obstacles are gone_ _now_ , thought Sasuke, taking his sword out of its scabbard.

"Yeah. That certainly wasn't very wise of you," with a wicked smile on his lips, Sasuke charged towards his clansman.

Yutaka activated his Susanō in an attempt to block the attack, but it was too late – his younger relative touched his shoulder, and then they already were standing in the middle of the familiar room.

"The Gate …?" The older Uchiha muttered as his chakra avatar vanished. "Why here?"

"It's the only place in the entire village where they can't see us. Karin made it impossible with some complex seals of her clan. And since we have some spare time for now … where is Orochimaru?"

"In his new lab, I suppose. It's two floors directly above us."

Sasuke nodded quickly, teleporting away again, this time alone. It didn't take him longer than five seconds to appear back in the room with Orochimaru who looked a bit surprised, although his usual mocking grin never left his lips. Along with the sannin, the Uchiha had brought a man who appeared to be absolutely lost, staring into the space in front of him and smiling insanely.

"So … I assume you've retrieved what it takes to use the jutsu, then … have you, Sasuke-kun?" asked Orochimaru, giving a puzzled look to his former student.

The teen nodded as his hand slid into his pocket.

"Yeah. I took it from the special storage in Konoha's hospital." He handed a dust covered vial with dark red liquid to the Sannin while Yutaka narrowed his eyes, looking at the clearly mad man they had brought along.

"Who is this?" The older Uchiha asked, pointing at him.

"One of the fanatics who have attacked Hinata-chan the other day. Don't worry about him, though. He is completely mindless now, and there is no cure for him." Orochimaru smirked, coming closer to the man and channeling his chakra into his arms.

Yutaka frowned, looking at them incredulously.

"And why exactly should I be worried for him? What are you going to do?"

Orochimaru giggled, finishing one of his favorite sequences of hand signs.

"I'll put him out of his misery. But at least he's going to do us one last favor …," he took a scroll out of the sleeve of his coat that looked identical to that of Yutaka, and, opening the vial Sasuke had given him with his thumb, the sannin spilled the blood it contained onto the paper covered with a few seals.

Yutaka's eyes widened slightly as the snake master slammed his palm onto the floor.

 _Edo Tensei no Jutsu!_

For once in a while, Sasuke felt a bit nervous, noticing distantly that the vessel for the soul of the person they were reviving apparently truly was insane – he didn't even react to very painful effects of the jutsu as the fragments of something that looked like paper to the Uchiha appeared out of nowhere, covering his body completely within a few seconds. And even White Zetsu had cried in terrible pain back when they had used him and his clones to bring the four Hokage from the afterlife during the war ...

The eyes of the revived person opened slowly, meeting the mismatching pair of Sharingan and Rinnegan.

"Sasuke …? Is that you?" The familiar voice that sounded exactly like the young man remembered made his heart clench, and he nearly winced at the sudden searing pain in his chest he thought he had long forgotten.

"Yes … It's been a while, father."

* * *

"I wonder where did he take him to … I can't see either of them anywhere around," Hiashi mused out loud, scratching his chin thoughtfully as he scanned the nearest floors of the Tower with his Byakugan.

It's been about three minutes since Sasuke and the Akatsuki member had left them, and the wait was getting more and more frustrating and unnerving with each second passing in grave silence .

"I have a bad feeling about this, Hiashi-sama," Kō scowled, narrowing his eyes at the only way out of the room aside from the one they had come from – it was clearly visible on the upper level of the hall, right between the two large pipes nearly under the very ceiling. "Perhaps you should wait before–"

"She's coming," he replied simply, not letting his subordinate finish the sentence and watching through the massive walls as the kunoichi was approaching them with quite impressive speed. "Everyone, prepare now! The time has come!"

The fifteen ninja who remained frighteningly silent and appeared absolutely indifferent during this entire time formed a circle around Hiashi while Kō walked slowly out of the formation, not moving his eyes off Hinata who was already pretty close to them, jumping down through the air shaft – looked like she chose the shortest route in order to cover the distance between them as fast as possible.

It was a matter of seconds now …

"There she is," Hiashi uttered quietly, looking at his older daughter who was dressed in the familiar Akatsuki coat, looking down at him – to his surprise, her Byakugan was deactivated.

 _Apparently she truly has grown very confident,_ thought the head of the Hyūga clan, suppressing a satisfied smile.

No matter what he felt about this girl, no matter what his duty demanded to do ... as her father, he still felt incredibly proud for his child, gazing at her blank face now as she stopped near the edge of the platform above them, her eyes finally meeting his own.

"Father … you've come, after all."

All of sudden, Hiashi felt utterly insecure as he heard her smooth voice. She didn't look surprised one bit … had she been waiting for them?

"Yes, daughter. We've come to end this. You will die here, so you must accept the inevitable," he replied equally as calmly, forming a few hand signs as the Branch House members knelt down around him simultaneously, closing their eyes.

Hinata's face nearly didn't change at all as she watched them, but Kō noticed her eyes widening slightly before squinting, as if she was surprised by her father's response.

"This formation …," she finally uttered after a few seconds of watching them, "So you've decided to come this far, huh? And all of this … is just to take your own daughter down?"

Hiashi lowered his head, smiling sadly.

"I must admit that I always was wrong about you, daughter … you're probably the most powerful off-spring our family has seen in decades. However … what you've done is unpardonable. Killing your clansmen and joining Akatsuki ... after putting such a shade on the face of our noble clan, you must be executed in order for us to redeem the name of Hyūga. Which is why I have no other choice but to put an end to your existence."

The kunoichi cocked her head slightly, peering at him searchingly for a moment before the shadow of a weird smile played on her lips.

"I wonder what your true reasoning is … although I suppose I'll only be able to take it out of you when Orochimaru-san revives you with Edo Tensei for interrogation later on," she replied, and Kō, who was listening to their conversation quietly, looked at her incredulously, as if suspecting something to be wrong yet not having enough time to figure it out.

"I'd like to talk to you a bit longer, Hinata. But I'm afraid we don't have much time." Forming the ram sign, Hiashi clapped his hands in front of him.

 _Byakugan Gisei: Tensei no Nagare!_

Although Hinata winced, raising her hand reflectively to cover her eyes from the blindingly bright light, neither of the three present Main House members looked surprised when the fifteen ninja screamed in horrible pain while the black circle of seals formed around them, connecting its black lines with everyone's Caged Bird Cursed Seal and lighting the dark hall with incredibly bright azure colored chakra that streamed rapidly into Hiashi's body, bathing him completely the next moment.

It only lasted for a few seconds before fifteen corpses fell onto the cold floor, breathless, while the girl's father clenched his left hand that was shining with unusually potent chakra that reminded of Naruto's Kyūbi Chakra Mode a bit.

A single black orb formed near his palm, shifting its shape into that of a bizarre sword the next second.

"Hiashi-sama …!" Kō gasped, turning to his senior. "Is everything alright?"

The older man's eyes shined – they didn't look like Byakugan at all anymore. In fact, they now had black pupils and the irises were bright blue, though it seemed like the light was already slowly starting to fade.

"Y-Yes … It's fine, although I'm not sure for how long I'll be able to hold all this chakra inside of my body. But a few minutes should be enough–"

They were interrupted by Hinata's grim laughter that echoed across the hall, making both the surviving men stare at her in confusion and disbelief.

It was too much unlike Hiashi's older daughter to react like this … on top of that, she clearly had recognized the jutsu Hiashi had just performed, and she had never known about it to begin with as it was one of the clan's nastiest and very well protected secrets – one of the true reasons for the Branch House's existence.

In nutshell, this technique allowed a member of the Main House to connect with the chakra system of those from the Branch House through their seals in order to drain the chakra from their bodies and their eyes completely, thus multiplying the user's power dramatically for a short time. In a way, it was similar to the power of the Eighth Inner Gate, although the difference there was that while the one who opened the Gate of Death sacrificed his own life, this technique required sacrificing lives of the others. The more shinobi were drained, the more power the user attained, although there was a specific limit for whoever would dare to try it – if the amount of borrowed chakra was too big, it would tear the user's chakra system apart and hence kill him.

Kō gritted his teeth as a drop of sweat flowed down his forehead. Something was off with her, that's for sure … but his Byakugan confirmed that it wasn't a _Henge_.

Then what …?

"You sure were quite in rush to use this atrocity of a kinjutsu … by sacrificing so many lives of your own clansmen, you were only able to attain the power that hardly rivals that of a perfect jinchūriki. And this ball ... it's a Gudōdama, isn't it? Naruto has shown these to me once before … it's supposed to allow you to negate the effects of any ninjutsu around, but it wouldn't help you much against either of us. At least I mostly rely on taijutsu, and now I surely won't be using any ninjutsu, so thank you for the hint," she said calmly, though sneering venomously by the end of voicing her analyses out.

"Us ...?" Hiashi clenched his fists, slowly raising up in the air – despite the kunoichi's mocking, the temporal chakra boost had provided him with quite some power, including the ability to float in the air …  
Which made the girl grin victoriously, shaking her head and laughing once again which sounded a bit maniacally – in fact, she was having a hard time controlling her rage as she witnessed the tremendous act performed by her father, someone she once had considered the most noble man in the world.

"To think that your insanity would lead you this far … to murder so many of your relatives only because of your obsession with killing your own daughter … _you_ are the true disgrace to the Hyūga clan, father. Fortunately enough, no matter how good your eyes are, you're still a prideful, naive idiot who can't see anything past his own nose. What a shame … and to think that I had some respect for you not so long ago ..."

"What … what on earth are you talking about?" he exclaimed, raising the weird looking sword midair, apparently preparing to launch an attack yet hesitating as he heard her words.

It was too unlike _her_ … as if she was …

His face paled under the burning chakra cloak, and the familiar sinister glare of her eyes made Hiashi's breath stop for a few seconds.

"Still haven't figured it out, have you?" The black haired woman sighed. "You're not that different from the other idiots of our clan, so it seems. Well, anyway, you have lost – it's already over. And as the person who outplayed you in every possible way has told me once … people live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true. That is how they define reality. But what does it mean to be correct or true? Merely vague concepts … their reality may all be ... an illusion."

Hearing her last line, both Hiashi and Kō stopped their chakra flow simultaneously, dispelling the genjutsu … and then the older shinobi gasped in complete, utter shock.

"To think that Hyūga Hiashi would get defeated by a simple genjutsu … like I said, you have lost, father," said Hanabi, standing there dressed in her ANBU attire and barely suppressing another triumphant laughter. "I've sealed the door to her room, so it will take Hinata a while to get down here. And although Tensei no Nagare would surely give you an upper hand in a fight against her as her style mostly relies on ninjutsu now, your chakra will burn off before she comes down to face you. Until then, I'm going stall you and this rat you've brought along. Neither of you are leaving this place alive."

Hiashi's expression was hardly describable, which, to her relief, only worked in Hanabi's favor – the more time he wasted on the hollow talk, the more precious chakra he lost.

"How … why? Why did you betray us, Hanabi?!" he yelled desperately, still hesitating to attack his younger daughter.

The genjutsu … Hanabi had absolutely no talent in genjutsu, and certainly wasn't skilled enough to use something his eyes wouldn't detect. Then _how …?_

The girl sneered again, cocking her eyebrow.

"Betray you? My allegiance is to Konohagakure and to the Sixth, not to an insane traitor who has just murdered so many loyal ninja of the Leaf for the sake of satisfying his own foolish agenda. You have fallen for this trap long ago, the moment you have declared your desire to execute Hinata, and it all went exactly according to my plan ever since," enjoying her father's frightened and shocked face, she continued with a wide grin. "As to one of his loyal ANBU members, Hokage-sama have given me the permission to take you down, as well as this foolish bigot you call your right hand. And I will do so, have no doubt. And then … I'll be able to truly cleanse our cursed name of arrogant slavers. I shall fix it all, and Hinata will help me with it. There is nothing you can do. Not anymore."

Hiashi's body was shaking in anger and despair as he clenched his fists, trying desperately to calm himself down.

"You won't be able to! The Uchiha will be here soon, and he will stop both of you!" Hiashi shouted out, but Hanabi's widening, nearly bloodthirsty grin somehow made him doubt it the instant he noticed her reaction.

What Hanabi missed there was Kō's expression – despite the shocking revelation of the heir's betrayal, he didn't look surprised at all. Instead, his gaze was focused on Hiashi, as if he was analyzing his current state and thinking rapidly on some kind of a plan.

"Oh? I wonder if he will," she cocked her head again, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, enough talk. Let's settle it now!" She clapped her palms.

 _Hachimon Tonkō:_ _Daiyon Hōmon. Kai!_

Hanabi's skin reddened as her dark brown hair stood on end, the green vapor covering her entire body.

"Here we go!" Despite the incredible amount of chakra he was controlling, Hiashi didn't manage to react in time as Hanabi's foot slammed right into his ribs, making the man bounce back, trying to catch his breath.

Just what … why? How was this possible …?

His eyes allowed the man to see it clearly - four out of eight of her tenketsu, commonly known as Inner Gates, were open, and she wasn't supposed to have _anything_ in common with this kinjutsu Maito Gai was so proficient with. How on earth could she be able to utilize it, let alone with such mastery?

Had she been training in secret all along ...?

Another heavy blow made him flow down, hitting the stone surface of the floor hard with his back and barely dodging the next strike – he rolled to the side, flying up in the air as Hanabi landed on the exact spot where his head was just a moment ago, making the stone crumble under her foot and wincing at the same time.

"Stop it, daughter! I don't want to kill you!" He blurted out desperately, raising his hand in front of him.

"Huh …?" She gasped, narrowing her eyes at him and trying to hide the painful expression. The drawbacks of opening the Fourth Inner Gate were much more straining than she had anticipated … perhaps she didn't have that much time, either. "How come? I'm a traitor too now, so what makes the difference between me and Hinata? Because _I_ certainly want to kill _you_ ," she hissed, glaring at the man and ignoring Kō's thoughtful look completely as if he wasn't there at all.

Hiashi's face darkened as he grimaced, clenching his jaw.

"It's none of your concern. I have my reasons!"

"Then tell me what they are, because I won't stop otherwise!" she yelled, jumping up in the air to strike her father again, but he beat her to it this time – her leg hit the shield formed out of the Truth Seeking Orb, and Hanabi felt her shin bone giving a crack, making her let out a gasp of pain before falling back to the floor, landing heavily.

"That's enough. I won't have to kill you in order to immobilize you, foolish girl." The shield's shape shifted again – it transformed into a long black spear, and Hanabi swallowed hard, thinking what to do.

Apparently he was going to start fighting for real now, so she wouldn't be able to catch him by surprise anymore …

 _Then …_

She charged towards the wall of the hall, running one circle after another around Hiashi incredibly fast so that he wouldn't be able to land a hit on her. But she wasn't attacking him either …

"So … is this your tactic? You literally intend to stall me? I'm disappointed, daughter. I assure you that the strain your body is suffering will make you stop before my chakra runs out." He smirked, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Stop this foolish game now before–"

 _Hakke_ _K_ _ū_ _sh_ _ō_ _!_

The shock wave caused by her own Vacuum Palm threw Hanabi back, making her hit her back hard against the wall.  
However, it turned out even worse for Hiashi – although he managed to hide behind his shield again in the last second, it still threw him into the opposite wall, making his body damage the wall notably.

They both groaned, panting and staring into each other's eyes.

"I have to admit that it was very impressive … if you trained this technique a bit longer, perhaps it would even reach the level of _Sekizō_ if you learned to open the Seventh Gate," he wiped the blood off his mouth, levitating back to the middle of the hall. "I'm sure Gai would be very proud of you if he saw your performance right now."

She gritted her teeth as she felt the taste of her own blood on her tongue, starting running again.

 _Hakke_ _K_ _ū_ _sh_ _ō_ _!_

This time she withstood it, but so did Hiashi – the vacuum of pressurized air was stopped by his shield completely while she kept running around him.

Despite being an arrogant, self-assured moron, her father surely was very good at analyzing taijutsu moves – what he had just mentioned had been their initial idea back when she had been training with Lee and Gai-san. To replicate the jutsu that normally could only be used upon opening the Gate of Death – since it worked very similarly to Hyūga clan's Vacuum Palm despite being much more powerful, the perfect chakra control which Hanabi had could potentially replace the extra power provided by the Eighth Gate, basically making it possible to us the Evening Elephant with only seven Gates open.

However, this was merely a theory … she didn't get to try it back in Konoha, and not that she would be able to do it in the next few years, if not for her entire life.

And now Hiashi could read her like an open book …

"For how long are you going to keep attempting to attack me, Hanabi? It is absolutely pointless. And if you stop right now, I will not harm you, I promise." His warm smile nearly made the blood in her veins boil of the burning rage that consumed the girl.

 _Yet you wouldn't spare Hinata in a similar situation, would you, bastard …?_

She used her Byakugan to make a quick check on her body's condition, and it was no good at all – a few of her bones were cracked, which meant that she could receive fractures any moment now. Aside from that, her muscles were about to get torn apart …  
No matter what, she had to play for time now for as long as possible before launching the final attack.

"I won't ever be able to open the Seventh Gate … Gai-san told me that opening even five of them would put my reproductive capabilities at risk," she mumbled, still panting and trying to catch her breath.

The baffled look Hiashi gave her made the girl feel a bit reassured – at least he didn't deny her a chat.

"Oh? That's strange to hear from someone like you. I'd never thought you care for such things as your future children when you receive an opportunity to become stronger."

Hanabi shrugged, feeling her legs begin to shake.

"Well, what can I say? I'm not you. There is no way in hell I would trade my own children for power."

She had to end it quickly … and apparently the only way to cause significant damage to him would be trying to open the Fifth Gate. Hopefully Naruto would be able to fix the damage afterwards …  
If she survived this, of course.

Hiashi sighed, shaking his head tiredly.

"You don't know what you're talking about … but it doesn't matter. Judging by your chakra flow, you intend to launch your final attack now, so bring it on. I'm looking forward to seeing the full extent of your current capabilities."

She closed her eyes, focusing completely on her chakra, but then something she would never expect happened.

Hanabi could feel four targeted attacks hit her most vulnerable tenketsu in one single moment – the first four Gates of hers got closed, and her chakra flow stopped, making the kunoichi collapse, hitting the floor hard with her face as she was too tired and damaged to react in time to prevent the fall with her hands.

" _Zesshō: Hachimon Hōgeki –_ success," the voice she despised so much announced calmly just next to her, making the girl groan hatefully.

"You … you fucking bastard! You've been waiting for an opening all along …!" She roared, raising her head slowly to look into Kō's impassive eyes.

Hiashi let out a satisfied sigh of relief.

"Well done, Kō. Now take her out of here, I don't want her to– ugh!" Hanabi's eyes widened and her heart began pumping quickly as she saw _it_.

A thin yet incredibly sharp bone pierced Hiashi's chest slightly below his heart, making the man turn around midair and look towards the upper entrance of the hall.

"You …!" he gasped, gripping the bone and wincing, pulling it out of his body.

"I assumed that these new eyes of yours, whatever they are, may not have the same properties the regular Byakugan has when I have noticed that their inner structure had changed. Looks like I was right, seeing as you weren't able to notice my attack coming from behind." Hinata's angry gaze moved to Kō who was about to grip the back of Hanabi's tunic. "Get your filthy hands away from her unless you want me to kill you first," her voice sounded calm yet rather harsh and threatening, which made the man step away from her sister, staring in amazement at the young woman he hadn't seen for months.

Her hair was a bit longer now than that day in Tanzaku-gai. She looked much stronger now and was a bit taller than before, and her makeup made her look a couple years older than she actually was. On top of that, she was wearing …

The man paled slightly as his Byakugan-enhanced vision allowed him to see through the Akatsuki coat, noticing the Uchiha crest on the back of her black shirt...

The shirt that looked identical to the one Sasuke was wearing when he had come to the Hyūga compound.


	22. A Failure

**Chapter 22. A Failure**

Of all the bad days in his not that long life, this one was probably the worst so far. At least the young chūnin couldn't remember another day when he'd had as much misfortune as he did today.

It already had started just as soon as he had opened his eyes back in the morning. The instant the boy had walked out of his room, he had been told that his father had died in a fight during his last A-rank mission. Ridiculous, considering that his dad was one of the strongest ninja of the Hyūga clan and the task itself wasn't supposed to be even remotely hard for someone like him. Yet still the man had been killed, protecting his genin team – the children had disobeyed his orders, following their sensei after the mission's rank had been updated to a higher one due to some unexpected circumstances … and now this was the cost of their reckless behavior.

His dad was no more.

He was left completely alone to take his rightful place among the other Hyūga. And whereas some could've argued with this, telling him that he still had the entire clan that cared for him deeply, the boy knew it better than those who had no idea how the things in their clan truly worked. Basically, he didn't really have anyone close to him any longer.

But the sudden overwhelming feeling of depressing solitude wasn't what was the most bothering and devastating for this young man now that he stood near the entrance to the Ninja Academy of Konohagakure, leaning against the wooden fencing and gazing at the sunset, lost in his thought.  
Without a doubt, he grieved the demise of his only remaining parent deeply, and surely he always was ready to face the remorseless fact that it was his sacred duty to inherit his father's responsibilities one day, as well as that this day could come anytime without warning.

No, the shinobi didn't feel broken, and neither was he depressed. Perhaps he simply had yet to embrace what exactly had happened, but in either case, at the moment his mind was being tormented by a simple, clear truth.

He wasn't good enough.

Ever since his early years, with him being the only child in their family line, the clansmen had been putting their trust and hopes in him. They always expected him to become a prodigy just like his late father always had been … but the boy never grew up to become strong, smart or cunning at the very least. His only relatively good qualities were kindness and honesty … he always was sincere with the others, and, more importantly, with himself as well.

And no matter what future awaited him now, he would never be able to withstand it, he just knew it and there was nothing to do with this.

He smiled sadly, lowering the white eyes to the ground.

If he tried to voice out his current thoughts to anyone, they most likely would decide that he's in a nearly suicidal state.

Yet still, in fact, he wasn't. And probably would never be. The more he thought about it, the clearer he realized that the only possible way for him to willingly sacrifice his life would be doing so for the purpose of someone or something he loved, and there was no such person or thing in his life … yet or anymore, or perhaps both – the ninja wasn't quite sure. What he had no doubt about, however, was that the life was a treasure bestowed upon him by his parents whom he loved and would always love no matter what, and it wasn't up to him to make a decision to simply waste it like that.

And no matter how much of a torture his life would become from now on, he was going to keep passing through all the ordeals and pain that lay ahead. Fate could kill him, but it would never be able to break him, of that he was absolutely sure. Because there was a purpose in his life, and the ninja intended to serve it until the very end.

Simple as that.

A sudden gasp of surprise and the following feeling of someone's small frame stumbling upon him interrupted the young man's silent vow, making the shinobi turn his head and look down at the winced face of the raven haired kid who was groaning, avoiding to meet the older boy's eyes as he was slowly getting up from the road.

"Ugh … sorry. I didn't see you, was reading something about ninjutsu …," the tiny fingers of the kid grasped the unrolled scroll, flicking the dust off its surface and rolling it back quickly.

"Don't worry about it," he smiled, squatting so that their eyes would be on the same level as he was nearly twice as taller than his unexpected disturber. "Are you hurt?" He frowned, looking at the boy's knuckles that were clearly damaged.

"Nah, it's fine!" The child replied quickly, finally closing the scroll up and putting it into his bag. "It's after the spar with that Inuzuka. If anyone needs care right now, that's him," he added, smirking pridefully.  
His face was literally radiating with confidence …

The fake confidence that he was so familiar with.

He already could see it in the kid's onyx black eyes. The deep belief that he was a 'no-good' child of his parents, always compared to his older sibling …  
Albeit it was no wonder considering _who_ was his older brother.

The Hyūga smiled broadly, rustling the boy's dark hair and then getting up.

"Without a doubt, Sasuke-kun. After all, they say that you are a prodigy the Academy hasn't seen in decades. That must be taking some really serious training."

The kid's eyes widened in surprise and his cheeks reddened slightly as he stared at the face of the foreign shinobi in shock, confusion and disbelief at the same time.

"Really …?" he drawled quietly, narrowing his black eyes suspiciously. "And who told you this? I've never seen you before."

He sneered. It was just like he had anticipated. Deep inside, the boy was pretty similar to the heir to the head of the Hyūga clan. Although unlike this little Uchiha, their beloved Hinata who actually studied in the same group with this boy never tried to hide her insecurities and shyness …

But this child was from another clan and obviously was raised differently, so that difference was hardly surprising.  
Besides, his father wasn't Hiashi-sama ...

"You are correct on this one, you haven't. But the word reached me, and you know, the rumor mill is never to be underestimated in Konoha … many people are pretty sure that you're going to surpass your brother in just a few years." It wasn't a complete lie – he really had heard it how Hinata was praising an Uchiha from her class for always being the best in all the subjects and winning every single spar back when her father had questioned the girl concerning her grades, though it only had happened once as far as he could remember.

But it worked. The kid's face lighted up with truthful happiness and pride now, and this time the seeds of doubt weren't visible anywhere in his posture.

"I see … anyway, I have to go!" Sasuke waved him a goodbye, running towards the Uchiha district with a wide grin on his face.

The shinobi sighed, shaking his head and smiling. This child most likely would never realize how lucky he actually was. He probably would never have to bother with any responsibilities regarding his clan, having all the privileges that being a son of the clan's head granted yet being the younger child at the same time.

"I hope he didn't bother you that much," came the familiar voice from behind, making the chūnin flinch and turn around.

 _Of course._

"No, not at all." He smiled warmly, meeting the eyes that looked exactly like Sasuke's. "It's been a while, Itachi-san."

The Uchiha lowered his head a bit, as if in a greeting nod, though his face remained impassive.

"You shouldn't call me that. We used to be classmates, after all."

The Hyūga gave him a weak smirk, sighing and looking away.

"True … but I can't ignore the difference any longer. You are on a completely different level than all of us now."

Itachi gazed at him thoughtfully for a few seconds before replying,

"It doesn't really matter. We all live to get buried in the end, sooner or later. All we can do before death comes after us is to make sure that the ones we love get a chance to live a life better than ours. That's all."

The Hyūga's eyes widened as the Uchiha passed him by, walking in the same direction his younger brother ran just a minute ago.  
But then he stopped, as if feeling his old comrade's troubled look on his back, and uttered quietly yet distinctly,

"I'm sorry for your loss."

So he knew … no wonder, considering that he was an ANBU now.

The white eyed ninja gave his former classmate's back a weak smile again, unsure what to say.  
Itachi had everything the Hyūga could ever dream of: a loving family, a sibling to take care for, and, moreover, he had the power to stand up for everything he had.  
Unlike him, the Uchiha was strong enough to serve his duty.

"I wish I was like you, Itachi-san."

There was an odd pause, and he nearly began thinking that Sasuke's brother spaced out for some reason, but then something strange occurred. Something the image of what burned into his mind so clearly that he would remember it afterward many, many times, even years later.

Itachi slowly turned his head to glance at him over the shoulder, and the chūnin gasped as his white eyes meet the bizarre pattern that reminded of a shuriken in his bloody red iris.

"I wish you will never become anything like me," with these words his peer disappeared in a smoke of cloud.

Kage Bunshin …? So he created it for the sole purpose of watching his young brother's back … and apparently now Sasuke was home, so there was no need for the clone any longer.

He didn't know it back then, but that was the last time in his life when he saw Uchiha Itachi.

Swallowing heavily, the shinobi let out a deep sigh and strode towards his own home.

 _...all we can do before death comes after us is to make sure that the ones we love get a chance to live a life better than ours._

Itachi loved someone, without a doubt … at least he obviously loved his younger brother enough to watch him even when there was absolutely no threat for Sasuke. Perhaps this love was the source of his power?  
But whom he himself could give his love to? Who could become _his_ source of power …?

"U-um … g-good evening … h-have you c-come here after m-me?" he flinched, looking down at the cute, pale girl with short black hair and the white irises that looked much like his own. He recognized the heir to their clan's head instantly, frowning as he eyed her up and down critically - although she never showed any signs of being in pain, he could see that her fragile body was covered with bruises all the way, and her lower lip was cracked.

"No … yes … what on earth happened to you?" he mumbled, sounding a bit demandingly yet worriedly at the same time, but apparently it was enough to scare her – the girl looked away sheepishly, biting the bleeding lip as her cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"I … I was s-sparring … and that b-boy ..."

"Which boy?" he asked carefully, grasping the child's shoulder gently.

"Um … I-Inuzuka-kun ..."

He tightened the grip a little bit, making the little girl raise her head to look into his eyes with fear, but her miniature features softened quickly as she noticed his reassuring and kind expression.

"Did you beat him?" he asked, giving her an acknowledging smirk.

She sighed, looking away again.

"N-no … U-Uchiha-kun did."

He took her tiny, nearly shaking palm into his own, making the girl look up and give him a slightly baffled gaze.

"Don't worry, Hinata-sama. I'm sure you're going to defeat both of them one day."

Her lips curved into a barely notable smile which gave him the previously unknown feeling of warmth in the chest.

"T-Thank you … Kō-san," she said, making the shinobi's heart twitch as they walked towards the Hyūga compound.

Maybe he had someone to love and protect, after all? Perhaps he actually could become like Itachi one day …?

* * *

 _A_ _single tear came out of Sasuke's eye, slowly flowing down his face as he glared at the man he intended to kill just a second ago, feeling too conflicted now to make any decisions after watching the shinobi's memory about meeting Itachi and himself many years ago. With too many questions popped out of nowhere all of sudden, the Uchiha decided to deepen both of them into the illusory world of Tsukuyomi._

 _"I've read your memories … about your last conversation with Itachi. Although I wonder why did you choose to show me that exact thing." There was no denying this fact – K_ _ō_ _was fast enough to focus on this particular event of the past, which could only mean that he had been expecting Sasuke to use Ningend_ _ō_ _on him._

 _The man looked at the teen impassively, not saying anything at all, as if expecting the Uchiha to continue voicing out his thoughts._

 _"Why did you attack Hinata? You love her, don't you?" asked Sasuke, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. The pattern of the story was way too familiar ..._

 _"Yes, I do," the answer was immediate, which made the Uchiha frown._

 _"Then why? Don't tempt my patience and just answer the question, or else I'm going to either torture you here for a few weeks straight or to simply ravage your mind with my Rinnegan."_

 _The light grin on his face was incredibly unnerving to Sasuke, and if K_ _ō_ _didn't start talking right away, Sasuke most likely would've fulfilled his threat._

 _"Because she needs to stay away from the village and our clan, and she also needs to get much stronger than she is right now in order to be able to protect herself. I can't look after her anymore, otherwise both of us are going to simply get killed by our clansmen. And this way, she gets a chance to survive."_

 _"This way …?" Sasuke muttered, not moving his eyes from the white ones of his supposed enemy. "What do you mean? What really happened in your freaking clan? And how the hell is she supposed to survive this? You've poisoned her, remember, genius?"_

 _K_ _ō_ _sighed, closing his eyes._

 _"Hinata's father, Hiashi-sama … he's insane, that's what happened. He's obsessed with the idea that Hinata is destined to destroy our clan. I don't know what caused this obsession, but it must be related to her mother's demise somehow, because it all started back then. He wasn't always like this, I tell you that much for sure."_

 _The Uchiha peered at him searchingly, rapidly thinking on his next move._

 _"What makes you think that I care about the past, about her, or any of you for that matter?"_

 _K_ _ō_ _smiled ironically, making Sasuke grit his teeth in irritation._

 _Because both of them already knew the answer._

 _"We wouldn't be having this conversation right now otherwise. Your reaction to what I've done said it all. You do care about Hinata, and you do want to save her. And there is a way. This poison works only on those who possess the certain genes … mainly the genes of Hyūga. Don't worry, you have more than ample time. The more chakra she has, the faster it spreads. And she has close to no chakra at the moment as I have seen. Your work, as I presumed ..."_

 _"What needs to be done?" the younger man barked, interrupting him, still fighting the temptation to make the man beg for his mercy._

 _"Take her to your old master, Orochimaru. He knows the way to cure her. And after this … please, Sasuke-kun. You saw the memories I've shown you, you must be able to understand ... I only want to protect the only person I love, and I know that you are the only one who can do that. I have nobody else to ask for it."_

 _The teen didn't hold back the sinister smirk as he finally noticed the Hyūga's emotionless mask giving a crack at his last line._

 _"Is that it? And you wanted to achieve your goal by blackmailing me like this?"_

 _"Yes,"_ _K_ _ō_ _replied simply, making the Uchiha's eyebrow cock at his blunt confession. "I didn't know if you'd agree to this. No … to be honest, I was sure you wouldn't, considering what they say about you in the village, and all the other things I know about you. That's why I had no other way. I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun."_

 _Sasuke looked at him grimly for a few seconds before sighing in defeat, closing his eyes._

 _"Fine, whatever. But you do realize that she's going to hate you from now on, don't you? And mind you, I'm not going to help this in any possible way."_

 _He smirked again, though there was a hint of sadness and resignation in his expression this time._

 _"I know. It's better to be this way. Hatred is what she needs to get stronger. After all, wasn't this what helped you years ago ...?" he broke off, noticing Sasuke's cold glare._

 _"Don't pretend to be anything you aren't. You are just an Itachi-wannabe, this is all there is to it." K_ _ō_ _'s eyes widened while the teen continued, "Your plan is ridiculous, and you have no idea who you are trying to mess with. However … consider yourself lucky, for I've already decided to look after her. I'm also a shinobi of Konohagakure, and it doesn't matter what you believe to be true about me. When the time is right, both she and I will come back to the village, one way or another. I will also deal with Hiashi if he tries to stand in my way. Same goes for you," K_ _ō_ _let out a loud sigh of relief, closing his eyes and lowering his head in submission._

 _"I understand. I expected nothing less from you, Sasuke-kun, and I can tell you the same thing – it doesn't matter what you think about me. My part of this is already finished anyway. Do whatever you believe is right to do, just please, protect Hinata-sama. This is all I'm asking for."_

 _"Hn." The Uchiha snorted, undoing the genjutsu and getting back into the real world, turning towards Hinata and her_ _anxious_ _teammates._

* * *

"Sasuke …? Is that you?"

"Yes … It's been a while, father."

Uchiha Fugaku gave his grown up son an examining look, stopping his eyes on the teen's face and frowning.

"Your left eye–"

"It's none of your affair." He already had started regretting replying so harshly even before he finished the sentence, suddenly feeling pretty bad as he noticed the well hidden glimpse of hurt in the dead Uchiha's expression.

"I see ..."

Sasuke nearly groaned both in impatience and shame. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided to explain himself in spite of the lack of time – after all, it was his father whom he missed incredibly to say the least every single day over the last decade, and the man certainly didn't deserve such attitude.

"It's Rinnegan. I've awakened it not so long ago."

"Rinnegan …?" The man's eyes widened in awe – apparently he was familiar with the term, which was hardly surprising considering that he had been the head of the Uchiha clan for many years prior to his death. "How ...?"

"In nutshell, it's a natural step of Sharingan's evolution. The final step. I'm the second person to ever awaken it," he added without really realizing why did he even bother elaborating on the matter like this. Could it be that deep inside, some part of him still wanted to impress his dad?

The ludicrous idea nearly made Sasuke blush.

 _Nonsense … I'm long past those times._

"The second?" Fugaku drawled slowly, activating his own Sharingan and taking a more careful look at his son's dōjutsu. "Who was the first?"

"Madara."

Fugaku's eyes widened a bit, but then he nodded nearly casually, apparently realizing something that Sasuke didn't know.

"I understand these are Itachi's eyes, then?"

"Yeah," came the simple response, though it was probably obvious to Fugaku by now anyway.

The man didn't look surprised at all – he nodded again with the slightest hint of satisfaction, as if he had just checked Sasuke's table with marks from the Academy, turning his head to Orochimaru and Yutaka. "Mind explaining why did you have to revive me, then? And since when you are working with _him_?" he pointed at the sannin, although there was no aggression neither in the gesture nor in his voice – just pure curiosity and a tiny note of disdain.

"You see, I used to be Sasuke-kun's sensei, Fugaku-kun. Right now, we are teamed up for an S-rank mission of Konohagakure. He asked me to summon you to this world, though I can only be guessing why."

"Is that so …?" Fugaku looked at Sasuke thoughtfully, apparently silently trying to find the answers to the multiple questions concerning the events that had taken part between his death and the present day.

"Yeah. I need to ask you a few questions, and yes, everything Orochimaru said is true. However, I think you might as well find what I'm about to tell you rather pleasing." Sasuke smirked pridefully, meeting Fugaku's perplexed gaze. "I killed Danzō, and Konoha is under our control right now. We're working on securing our positions in the world at the moment."

"Under … your control …?" Fugaku gasped excitedly, staring at his son in disbelief and amazement. "Are you trying to tell me that you are the Hokage?"

Sasuke's smirk dropped just as quickly as it had appeared.

"No … but I–"

"Then you don't have the control over Konoha, Sasuke. Trust me, don't be delusional. We've been fooled like this for decades, never receiving any the real power with our voices always getting ignored by the majority in the village. They are going to use you and your children like weapons, and then they will throw you into a trashcan with the first opportunity they'll get." The bitter and sorrowful look of his eyes made Sasuke clench his fists in frustration, losing control over himself for the first time in a very long time.

"No, father! You're wrong! My power–"

"Your ancestor Madara was incredibly powerful, too. You said it yourself, he even had the Rinnegan. But it didn't help him much."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, unsure what to say. How was he going to tell his father that he didn't care about power anymore? How could he tell him that he entrusted the tittle of Hokage to Naruto?

Was he even right to do so …?

The young Uchiha wasn't as confident anymore.

"Sasuke …, " Fugaku stepped closer to his son, making him snap his head to meet the unexpectedly warm black eyes of his dad. "I've made many mistakes in the past. And so did Madara and Itachi. It's totally up to you and only to you what to do with your life – after all, I'm a mere relic of the past, and I have no idea what kind of a man you have become … I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you throughout all these years." He put his hand on his son's shoulder, suddenly making the teen feel as if he was but a silly, naive brat once again. "I just want you to always remember – don't trust anyone. And I mean _anyone_. Otherwise you may end up getting killed by your own child one day." Sasuke sniffled, suppressing the tears.

"I know," he uttered quietly, avoiding Fugaku's gaze. "When I found out what really happened that night, I wanted to destroy Konoha. I nearly did … but I was stopped."

The older man gave him an understanding sad grin.

"A Senju?"

"Yeah … no. It was the son of the Fourth. We nearly killed each other, and lying there on the brink of death, we've decided to rebuild Konoha together. Father …," he finally found the courage to look into Fukagu's dark eyes. "Each of us has the power to end this world. There is no other way – either both of us are dead, or we try to work things out together. I chose the second option because I intend to revive our clan."

"Oh …?" The former head of Uchiha looked surprised again, but now there was something else in his expression.

Respect and admiration he was trying to hide yet failed as the feelings overwhelmed the dead man.

"Yeah … basically, that's the reason why I made Orochimaru summon you. I need you to answer three questions, and I'm pretty short on time right now for I need to make a vital decision as soon as possible."

Fugaku let go of his shoulder and nodded intently.

"Of course. Ask whatever you want, I'll try to help you as much as I can."

Appreciating the understanding, Sasuke nodded as well and pointed at Yutaka who was watching them silently throughout the entire conversation, apparently listening carefully to every single word.

"This is Yutaka, he's the son of an Uchiha outcast who has been banished from the clan long ago … I've found him during my travel, which made me wonder if you might know of any other outcasts I could look for. The more I find, the easier it is to ensure the clan's survival."

Fugaku glared at the third Uchiha in the room who met his eyes with his own Sharingan activated, which made Sasuke's father snort offhandedly before turning away.

"Smart strategy, I must admit … yes, this is probably the most valid way of securing the clan's survival. Unfortunately I don't think I possess much concrete knowledge about specific persons. What I can tell you for sure, however, is that there certainly were a few outcasts during the age of the First Hokage. They followed Madara shortly after he fled from the village, and among them were your very grandparents."

"Huh?" Sasuke gasped in surprise. "I thought they died during the Third Great Ninja War …?"

"Yes, that's my parents. And I'm talking about your mother's. Wherever they went, they are most certainly dead by now, but who knows? Perhaps they had another child born, or even a few of them. In either case, you should start looking for their traces in Nami no Kuni and follow it to the Land of Mists. That country used to be our domain centuries ago, so it is very likely that they tried to settle somewhere in that area."

"Land of Mists …," whispered Sasuke, turning to Yutaka. "It seems that everything leads us to Kirigakure, after all." The other Uchiha nodded, making Sasuke smile reassuringly and turn face Fugaku again. "Thank you, father. That's what we're going to do. Now, to the other questions … what can you tell me about Hyūga Hiashi?"

Fugaku's eyebrow cocked as the unexpected question certainly took him by surprise, making the man feel pretty baffled.

"Hiashi …? Why would you–"

"Please, father, we don't have much time left. My next question will answer yours."

The man nodded slowly, albeit the confusion and even a bit of suspicion didn't leave his eyes.

"Well, I can't say that we ever were either friends or rivals – at least I never considered him to be mine, for obvious reasons – Hyūga are no match for Uchiha. But I can say for sure that he was a good man, at least until the last few years of my life."

"The last few years?" Sasuke frowned, recalling the memory Kō had shown him months ago. He mentioned it too that Hiashi wasn't always the way he was nowadays, and now it was becoming obvious that something had happened to him which made the head of the Hyūga clan change dramatically. "What do you mean?"

"Well, like I said, we never were friends. We had to work together when it came to the matters of the council of the village, but that's basically about it. I also never cared about their clan that much – after all, they were always inferior to us." It sounded pretty arrogant, but Sasuke preferred to ignore the last line – not that he could argue with the statement anyway. "But I can tell you for sure that he was considered a good man. A man of honor. He always tried to be fair and reasonable even when that was putting his own clan at disadvantage, something I could understand. However, that only lasted until his wife's death."

"How exactly did she die?" Fugaku shrugged indifferently – apparently he really couldn't care less about the Hyūga clan, and it still remained a mystery to him why his son was so interested in them.

"I don't know. But it happened shortly after his second daughter's birth, perhaps even on the same day. You are aware that neither me nor your mother were the persons to pick an interest in gossips, and Hyūga remained very secretive about the incident. I don't think anyone aside from the Third knows what exactly happened there, and I'm not sure even about him."

Sasuke sighed disappointingly, lowering his eyes. Apparently there was no other way but to interfere the fight downstairs and to read Hiashi's memories in order to find out the truth, because everything the young Uchiha had found out until now was leading him to the conclusion that there was a very dark secret behind the man and his family. The secret that caused all the mess they were currently in …  
And that was vital for him to know if he wanted to save Hinata from walking the sorrowful path of pain and regrets very similar to the one from his own past.

"I see … now, as for the last question … it's also the answer to the one you've asked. I'm going to marry Hiashi's older daughter."

Now that was something that truly made an impact on the dead man. He stared at his son in complete shock and disbelief for a few seconds, but then, seeing as the teen remained calm and impassive, he opened his mouth slowly,

"Whereas your previous question makes some sense now … why a Hyūga of all people, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Because I love her." The answer was simple and truthful, but apparently that wasn't enough for Fugaku – he could easily see that there was more to it than Sasuke told him.

"Is that it? Do you realize that we're talking about the heir to the Hyūga clan right now?"

"No, that's actually false. Hiashi banished Hinata from their clan and labeled her a nukenin. And right now, it's up to me to decide his fate."

Fugaku sneered, rolling his eyes.

"Banished his own daughter? Is he completely out of his mind? What the hell did she do to deserve something like that? Don't tell me that it's because she started dating you," he smirked mockingly, and it felt a bit awkward for Sasuke – he had never seen his father joking like this during his childhood. Fugaku always was very serious and collected, at least in his child's presence, which made his son wonder how much he didn't get to know about this man.  
Suppressing the feeling of heartbreaking sorrow, Sasuke replied calmly,

"Nothing, that's the point. For some unknown reason, he's dead sure that she is destined to put an end to his clan or something like that. I want to marry her so that she joins the Uchiha clan – perhaps in this case he will calm down a bit so that I don't have to slay him. But to make it possible, I need to perform the specific ritual, and I wasn't able to find anything in our archives on the matter. Can you tell me how do I do that?" It was true – despite the bluff he had pulled on Hiashi back in Konoha, in fact, Sasuke hadn't managed to find anything in the old scrolls of his clan, so he had little to no idea how the ritual was supposed to be performed, which was the deciding factor for his decision to make Orochimaru use Edo Tensei to let him talk to Fugaku.

"Oh … I see now. Very interesting … such a marriage wasn't a common thing back in the years to say the least. That's probably why you weren't able to find anything about it – but at the same time, it's because the ritual itself is relatively simple. First, the bride needs to give up on her family name and thus on the clan's chakra insignia – each clan has its own specific way of doing so, but usually females are aware of the way it's done as it's a part of their traditional education."

"Yeah, I know. But what comes afterwards?" asked Sasuke even more impatiently than before as he felt the strong outburst of familiar chakra somewhere from downstairs.

His own chakra … which could only mean ...

"Well, that's the tricky part of it. It is nothing special in general, but it has something to do with the way every chakra signature works. As you could've guessed, it always reacts to the type of chakra you're having in your system. For instance, if you're completely drained, and some foreign chakra refills your body, it's going to resonate with your signature, making it possible to change the insignia. The insignia itself is naturally protected from such possibility, but if you give up on it beforehand, the empty spot will be taken by a new one which will be formed based on the injected chakra."

"In other words, all that has to be done is to make sure that the amount of my chakra in her system prevails the amount of her own?"

"Yes. But it will only work if she's already done her part of the ritual."

And then the breathtaking realization hit Sasuke. He snapped his head towards his former master, growling,

"You knew it, didn't you ...?" The quiet giggle of the sannin and his slightly mocking gaze were all the answers he needed.

"I suspected, yes. But you never asked me anything about it, Sasuke-kun. After all, it would be an insult to offer you my help against someone like that man ... wouldn't it?"

The pieces of the puzzle finally came together, making the young man grit his teeth in anger and frustration as he glared at Orochimaru who simply stared at him with curiosity, apparently realizing that the Uchiha finally understood it all and eagerly expecting him to make the next move.

 _...my part of this is already finished anyway...,_ the weird phrase from his memories echoed through his mind, making Sasuke wince.

There was no one else to blame but himself. He has been tricked since the very beginning … by the very man he had spared back in Tanzaku-gai half a year ago.

* * *

"So you have come, after all," Hiashi smirked, pulling the bone out of his body and throwing it away. "Apparently it was true, and you really have awakened this legendary kekkei genkai."

"You won't be seeing it again in your life. Consider yourself lucky," Hinata snapped, though not moving from her spot at the entrance to the immense hall, focusing her eyes on the man that was floating a few yards away. "My aim isn't perfect yet, so it seems," she added, watching through his flesh with her Byakugan - his heart remained untouched while the wound was rapidly healing itself which apparently was one of the side effects of Hiashi's temporary chakra mode.

"Or perhaps it's just that fate is on our side, don't you think so?" asked Hiashi, sounding nearly friendly, as if he wasn't going to attack his older daughter at all.

"What are you talking about?" Hinata raised her eyebrow questioningly. "You are in the middle of the lair of Akatsuki. Even if I don't kill you right now, our leader will finish you off the second he feels that I'm in trouble."

Hiashi sneered, grinning wickedly.

"Your leader?" he kept laughing, raising his arm and forming a shield out of the Truth Seeking Orb in front of him. "You mean that man with the Sharingan? Make no mistake, he's already being dealt with."

"Oh, really?" Hinata asked idly, still not moving an inch. "And by whom, exactly?"

"Your old classmate, Uchiha Sasuke. He was kind enough to escort us to this place and to make sure that we are not interfered here. Therefore I suppose you are the one who's made a grave mistake, Hinata." Her shocked expression only made his bloodthirsty grin widen. "You will die here today, and there is nothing you can do about it. We've made a deal – our clan will support Uchiha-dono in the village and will help him reclaim his good name, and in exchange, he is to make sure that you will die. And whereas I have to admit that you truly have become much stronger than before, even making me feel proud for you, I think you understand it yourself – none of you are a match for someone like him. You are doomed, and so are your newfound accomplices."

She could feel her knees starting to shake as the thought of Sasuke's possible betrayal pierced her heart like an icy, poisonous needle.

Could it be …? Could it be that he had been simply using her throughout this entire time, after all?

"Don't listen to him, nē-chan!" Hanabi yelled desperately, raising her face from the floor and coughing out some blood. "It's all according to his plan! It's–," the sound of a deaf smack made Hinata snap her head to look at the younger kunoichi who had just been rendered unconscious by Kō's heavy kick on the nape.

 _His plan …?_

The young woman frowned, watching as the man she had once known as her father laughed at her, not even paying any attention to his younger daughter's condition, apparently thinking that Hinata was trembling in fear after he had mentioned Sasuke's name.

 _...no matter what I do in the following days … trust me. Please._

It sure sounded a bit weird at the time … but now that Hinata remembered Sasuke's soft, nervous voice back when he was telling her that, it was beginning to make sense.

Sasuke would never betray her. He loved her, just like she loved him.

And her father was a mere fool. He didn't even pay attention to Hanabi's words, too busy enjoying his moment of triumph …

Hinata raised her hand, shooting another bone in the direction of Kō which made the younger shinobi jump away, taking his Jūken stance instantly.

"Enough with the interlude. Your chakra is burning off, I can see it clearly … let's settle it once and for all, Hyūga Hiashi," she uttered, raising her second arm.

The older man stopped laughing, narrowing his eyes at his daughter instead and focusing on the certain tenketsu somewhere in her chest.

"I see … you gave up on your name. Your chakra signature looks different now, but the place of the insignia is empty. What an irony … I intended to give you an honorary burial, but now you will die as a nobody. I suppose it worth it, doesn't it? At least you are completely independent now … like a true kunoichi I always wanted you to become."

"That's not why I did this," she replied harshly while both of her hands began sparkling with her lightning infused chakra. "I've been proposed to marry someone, and I agreed. No pompous things, as you can see. Sorry to disappoint you again ... father."

Hiashi gasped, and Kō paled to the point where the shade of his skin reminded that of a list of paper.

"To marry someone …? So you've decided to take the name of some filth instead of keeping your own? You are right, now I'm truly disappointed. I suppose you haven't changed that much, after all. Once a disgrace, always a disgrace."

She gave him a thin, barely notable smile.

"You are still as oblivious as possible … even your 'right hand' has already figured it out, just look at him." Confused by her words, the head of the Hyūga clan turned his head to glance at Kō, and that was just the moment Hinata had been waiting for – the moment she got out of his line of sight, the kunoichi shot another bone at the man, the one charged with lightning this time – and although the shield moved in front of him nearly instantly to protect its owner, Hinata was fast enough to rush forward, striking Hiashi with another sequence of deadly blows which he blocked successfully without much effort.

What made her feel worried, though, was that the bones she was using to attack him turned into dust the instant they came close to the shield. Analyzing the familiar picture for a few seconds while she was dancing around Hiashi, dodging his own attacks and trying to land a hit, she realized it rather quickly that the shield was made of a Gudōdama – an orb much like the ones Naruto could utilize in his Six Paths Sage Chakra Mode. She'd already seen them in action during the war – Uchiha Obito was much more proficient than both her father and the Uzumaki when it come to using this technique, and Hiashi certainly was no match for a jinchūriki of the Jūbi.

Still, it basically rendered all of her ninjutsu useless, which meant that she could only rely on taijutsu if she hoped to defeat Hiashi … which also was not an option since she wasn't fast enough to dodge the Gudōdama.

"It's pointless, Hinata. Just give up. I've calculated every possibility in my simulations when I was preparing for this fight – none of your, I must admit, pretty impressive techniques will work on me."

"Yes …," she uttered, jumping away and standing on the ceiling of the hall. "As far as I know, only senjutsu-infused techniques can damage you right now. And judging by the rate of decreasing of your chakra's activity, you still have about five minutes to do something that kills me. Do you think I manage to kite you for a while?" She smiled, preparing to dodge the upcoming attack.

"Such tactic would be good," said Hiashi, lowering his hand and meeting her mocking gaze. "If you weren't already done for."

Hinata's eyes widened as she felt the burning cold in her abdomen - the orb identical to the one that Hiashi used as his shield slowly passed through her body, destroying the flesh on its way.

"How ...?" she gasped, feeling the blood flowing down her chin and realizing it way too late that her regenerating ability also was a ninjutsu - and right now, it was being negated by the second Gudōdama.

"I only have one minute left now ... but it doesn't matter. It's already over, daughter. Close your eyes and let the oblivion consume you."

Her chakra flow stopped, and the kunoichi fell down heavily, feeling distantly how a few of her ribs broke the moment her body touched the cold surface of the floor.

 _No ... it can't be. I can't give up. I can not die here ...!_

Everything around her began to darken, and Hinata clenched her fists, trying desperately to stay conscious.

Senjutsu ... if only she could acquire a piece of senjutsu chakra somehow, her body would start healing itself. But how ...?

She smiled weakly, feeling herself an utter idiot.

 _Perhaps some things just don't change no matter what we do, huh ..._

Activating the Cursed Seal on her neck for the first time in her life, Hinata stood up slowly, starting to feel much better the same second Sasuke's chakra began streaming through her tenketsu while the multiple black magatama covered her skin. The potent energy of the seal forced her wounds to start healing themselves despite the orb still being dangerously close to the black haired girl.

"What the ...?" Hiashi growled quietly, moving his hand to command the Gudōdama to attack Hinata again, but it was already too late - the young woman jumped away, and before he could react, Hiashi felt the burning claws shredding through his skin down his spine, making the man gasp in pain and back off from Hinata whose body was now bathed in fire ... or rather in her fire infused chakra which formed a complete avatar of a lioness around the kunoichi.

It wasn't as huge as Sasuke's Susanō or Naruto's Kyūbi Bijū mode, but it was just big enough to cover her entire frame while she was standing in the middle of the chakra construct, panting as her body was still recovering from her father's attack.

"How ... how is this possible?!" Hiashi shouted out, moving the second orb closer to himself and forming a spear out of it.

"You ... still don't see it ... do you ...?" she smirked, breathing heavily and narrowing her white eyes at his shield and the weapon.

The man ignored her question, charging towards her again - apparently he only had a few seconds of his Chakra Mode left, so it was the last resort for Hiashi.

Hinata closed her eyes, draining even more chakra out of the cursed seal, hoping to channel just enough energy to block the upcoming attack, but instead, something completely unexpected happened.

Hiashi stopped midair just a yard away from his daughter, staring at her in complete and utter horror as the fire that surrounded her body changed its color to obsidian black. And even though he had some knowledge of the Uchiha clan's kekkei genkai, Enton, also known as Amaterasu, so he knew that coming in contact with her chakra avatar would mean his imminent death, that wasn't what stopped him from lending his final strike.

It was the long belated realization of the fact that he had lost this fight before it even had started.

"You ... shall not ... hurt me ... ever ... again ...," Hinata hissed, glaring at the man hatefully while he watched her chakra signature changing into the one that was familiar and foreign to him at the same time while his borrowed chakra faded away for good.

The lioness raised its paw, and the black flames were about to reach Hiashi's chest to rip it apart and thus to put an end to his life ...

"Do it! Kill him, Hinata-sama!" Kō yelled desperately, which made the kunoichi hesitate for a split second, looking at him in confusion - and that moment was just enough for the invisible force to throw the father and his daughter away from each other, making their backs slam into the opposite walls of the hall.

"No ... no, you bastard! What the hell are you doing?!" The younger Hyūga shinobi nearly screamed, falling onto his knees and silencing the next second, grasping his throat.

"Shut up, you silly rat ... you have lost. Nobody is going to die here tonight," Sasuke's voice echoed across the hall as he turned to Hinata who had just got back onto her feet, staring at him angrily through the black flames of her chakra avatar.

"What's the meaning of this, Sasuke?" she asked demangingly, crossing her hands on her chest.

He smirked warmly, ignoring his bride's frankly enraged expression.

"I've found out some interesting things concerning these two, as well as your former clan ... and now I'm going to make them reveal all the secrets to both of us before we decide their fate together, as husband and wife."


	23. Where There Is No Us

**Chapter 23. Where There Is No Us**

"What's the meaning of this, Sasuke?"

To her, the actions of the Uchiha didn't make any sense whatsoever. Why would he want to save father from her vengeance? Hadn't he been preparing her for this moment all along? Wasn't it her rightful duty to finish this monster off ...?  
The frightening, poisonous suspicion crawled slowly into the back of her mind, making the young woman's legs start trembling at the upcoming feeling of despair once again.

What if he actually had decided to betray her …? What if her father was right, and she was wrong to trust him? The Uchiha certainly was smart enough to pull such a scheme, fooling all of them for his own benefits …

...t _rust me. Please._

The swarm of paranoid thoughts quickly got brushed away by the memory and by Sasuke's warm, nearly kind expression which was such a seldom thing to witness that it made Hinata frown in confusion, feeling herself even more baffled than a second ago when the fight had been interfered.

"I've found out some interesting things concerning these two, as well as your former clan ... and now I'm going to make them reveal all the secrets to both of us before we decide their fate together, as husband and wife."

Her pale eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent question as she stared at the raven haired ninja, forgetting to breath for a second.

Husband and wife? What on earth was he talking about? They didn't … did they …?

"Interesting …," he mumbled suddenly, taking a step closer and giving the black flames that were surrounding her a studying look. "So you have managed to maintain the perfect version of your Lion Fist technique, which allowed you to form the complete chakra avatar, exactly as we predicted … you didn't tell me that you have reached this level of chakra control already, though," he frowned slightly, and it seemed to her for a brief second that there was a tiny note of hurt in his voice.

"I didn't know myself … until today. It was … kind improvised," Hinata replied quietly, lowering her eyes in shame. Even in a situation like this, when she had every right in the world to be angry, she still felt bad for making him sad ...

But Sasuke only chuckled, completely ignoring Hiashi who stared at them silently with his eyes open wide in utter horror, as well as Kō who glared at the Uchiha hatefully, yet was unable to grasp a single word – he looked as if something invisible was clenching his throat, rendering the shinobi completely speechless.

"You never cease to amaze me … and on top of that, the activation of the Cursed Seal changed your new Lion Avatar's chakra element from simple Katon to my Enton. Even though it is only possible thanks to my chakra that we sealed into your body back then … such power rivals that of an imperfect jinchūriki. Very impressive … don't you think so, Hiashi?" He finally turned his head and glanced at the man who still stared at him in disbelief, looking completely lost and desperate, as if he was trying to convince himself that everything around him was merely a miraculous genjutsu of some sort.

"What … what …?" the older man whispered, sliding down the cracked wall and falling onto his knees, panting heavily and spitting blood onto the dirty floor.

Sasuke sneered joyfully.

"You should be able to see it yourself if you use your Byakugan and inspect the chakra system of your daughter. Let's spare the hollow talk – you are not that dumb not to understand it yourself at this point." Sasuke looked at Kō who finally fell onto the floor as well, coughing and trying to catch his breath as the Uchiha's invisible Limbo clone moved slowly towards its owner's body. "As for you–"

"Sasuke! Hinata! Are you alright?" Karin, wrapped into her Akatsuki coat and looking quite disheveled, landed next to the older Hyūga sister whose chakra avatar was still there, blocking any possible way to come close to her. In spite of it, the red haired kunoichi fixed the glasses on her nose with her pointer, narrowing her eyes at the large round shaped gaping hole on Hinata's clothes that revealed her blood stained abdomen which was already completely healed thanks to the regenerating capabilities of her kekkei genkai.

"Yeah … It seems like Hanabi could use some help, though," replied Sasuke, raising his head to look above and meeting Orochimaru's slightly quizzical gaze while Karin nodded busily, running towards the unconscious girl.

Next to the sannin stood Yutaka and Fugaku, looking down at the scene before them. The revived man gasped, noticing Hiashi who in turn, surprisingly enough, apparently calmed down by this moment, simply staring silently at some point inside of his older daughter's chest with his Byakugan active.

"My, my … it seems like your naughty little plan has failed, after all. Not that it's any of my business, Kō-kun … but to be fair, I warned you not to underestimate Sasuke-kun's intelligence. I assume it's safe to say 'game over' now?" Sasuke's former sensei drawled lazily, jumping down alongside the alive and the dead Uchiha.

"You owe me a good explanation later," Sasuke barked slightly irritatedly, turning away from the three shinobi and looking at Hinata who was gazing at him patiently all this time and panting – her skin was still covered with the familiar black magatama pattern.

"Can you deactivate the seal?" She shook her head quickly, and the next moment her gloomy expression changed into a surprised one.

"I … I can sense it ..." Sasuke's eyebrow cocked while everyone else in the room gave the young woman baffled looks.

"Really? I wonder …," the Uchiha hemmed, scratching his chin. "Although it makes sense, I suppose. You've tapped into my chakra, after all."

Hinata stared in to the empty spot in the space in front of her, not moving her eyes away.

"Is this … Is this Madara's–"

"No, it's Indra's," he snapped, interrupting the black haired kunoichi who moved her eyes at him and peered at the ninja searchingly for a second before giving him an understanding nod, not noticing the weird glance Hiashi gave Sasuke when he mentioned the name of his first incarnation.

She realized that he most likely didn't want to reveal the secrets of his abilities to the others in the room, especially to Kō and her father. That's why Hinata didn't move as she felt the shadow passing through the black flames and stopping right next to her.

Nobody in the hall aside from Sasuke and Hinata could see or feel it, but the kunoichi flinched as the shadow's lips touched her own, sending the reassuring wave of warmth through her body and making her smile unwillingly while the intangible Limbo clone absorbed the black flames with its Rinnegan, suppressing her seal at the same time.

"Now then … I'll deal with you first." Sasuke suddenly charged onward, gripping Kō's neck and meeting his white eyes which were burning with hatred and rage directed at nobody but the young Uchiha who looked at him impassively, with a nearly bored expression on his face.

"You are an idiot if you assumed that binding Hinata to me like that could force me to protect her from Hiashi. Everything you have achieved by doing such a foolish thing against her will was spoiling something that was meant to happen afterwards anyway. Aside from that, I hold no grudge against you, silly worm … so unless Hinata disagrees, your only punishment will be this." Without any warning, he punched Kō's face heavily, breaking his nose and making the man cover his bleeding face with his palms, falling down to the floor.

"Sasuke … I still don't understand … what has he done?" Hinata muttered suspiciously, passing through the shadow and coming closer to her former bodyguard who was crouching on the cold floor next to her lover.

"Just check your chakra signature, and you'll see it yourself. Aside from being a complete moron and an Itachi wannabe, he has ruined our wedding ... or rather made it happen faster than we wanted it to without asking for our agreement. Not too polite of him, if you ask me." It was clear that Sasuke nearly felt triumphant for some reason, and she certainly didn't understand why. Was he so happy with the mere fact that he didn't let her stain her hands with her family's blood?

Although she still didn't understand completely what was going on, Hinata couldn't help but chuckle herself as she noticed the risible notes in the Uchiha's voice, which certainly wasn't a common thing coming from him. And seeing how he was nearly having fun with the situation they found themselves in, no matter how serious it seemed to be just a minute ago, made the kunoichi smile as well, barely managing to suppress a sneer.  
But then her grin disappeared as she noticed what he was talking about.

The former Hyūga insignia that had once been a part of her chakra signature was now replaced with that of an Uchiha.

Which could only mean …

"I … Sasuke …?" She looked at the man, feeling absolutely lost and shocked, not knowing what to do or to say for the first time in a very long time.

He shrugged, pointing at Kō with his hand.

"As I've just told you, it was _his_ plan all along. I had nothing to do with this. That time in Tanzaku-gai, back when he had poisoned you, he told me inside my Tsukuyomi that I should go to Orochimaru in order to save you. And Orochimaru knew beforehand that we would come. They anticipated that you would eventually give up on your clan's name given all that happened, and that Hiashi would force you to activate the seal at some point after that, which he did. This worm wanted to bind the two of us by forcing you to become a part of the Uchiha clan … as my wife."

Hinata let out a loud, fitful sigh.

"Is … is this true?" She moved her eyes to the sannin who nodded affirmatively, giving her a small grin.

"It is, Hinata-chan. Don't be mad at me, though – neither you nor Sasuke ever asked me about it, and I didn't really have any reason to reveal this small detail since you didn't seem to be interested anyway. If you asked, I most certainly would've told you everything."

The kunoichi turned away, gazing at Kō again. She wasn't really angry because of Orochimaru's actions – after all, it would be silly to expect anything else from someone like him. No matter how flawed and maybe even insane this man was, he saved her life back then, and the fact that he knew about this ridiculous plan of her former bodyguard paled in comparison with that. She was still grateful to him for being alive, and for many other things as well.

Kō, on the other hand …

She walked towards the man, coming close to him, and the Hyūga man raised his head slowly, meeting the pained look of her eyes.

"Hinata-sama … I–"

"Why did you do this to me?" she uttered quietly, kneeling down and touching the man's chin gently.

His expression softened and tears rolled down his cheeks as he sobbed,

"I ... I just wanted to protect you ... from this monster ..."

"By forcing me to become Sasuke's wife? Knowing that should he turn to be what the rumors said he was, he would've given me back to the clan right away or perhaps even killed me?"

The man bit his lip, nodding vigorously and closing his eyes, as if expecting her to kill him the next second after his confession.

"I love you, Hinata-sama. I always did, and I still do. And I would do everything in my power to protect you. It was the only option, or perhaps I just failed to find a better way … but it doesn't matter. Just … please … kill him. Liberate the Hyūga from this bastard once and for all, and never come back to our cursed clan. You deserve better … so, so much better ..."

Hinata sighed, shaking her head and caressing his cheek lightly.

"Sasuke is right … you are such an idiot. Can you imagine how much pain have you caused to me? And now you even ruined something I've been looking forward to …" She turned her head to meet her husband's eyes who watched the scene with uncovered curiosity. Apparently now that he saw that she had calmed down and understood what had happened, he wanted her to decide Kō's destiny herself. And he was correct, because now, when her anger had already evaporated, Hinata realized that she didn't really have any grudge for this man who was now waiting for her judgment meekly.

After all, he truly loved her. He was there for her for many, many years, and even though he had done some really foolish and hurtful things ... in the end, he only wanted to save her. There was no ill intent coming from him … and, after all, the only damage he really had caused to them was making her marry Sasuke unwillingly … which she had been going to do soon anyway.

Therefore …

The loud sound of a slap echoed across the hall, making Karin who was busy healing Hanabi flinch and snap her head to check what was going on.

"This is for all the mess you made," Kō winced as the former Hyūga kunoichi gripped the collar of his white shirt that was now covered with dirt and blood, forcing him to stand up – he looked away, rubbing the reddened spot on his face where her palm had landed a second ago.

Letting go of the beaten up man, Hinata turned to the Uzumaki medic, as if finally remembering something important.

"Karin, is she alright?"

The red haired girl nodded quickly, fixing her slipping glasses again.

"Y-Yeah, she'll be alright. I've put her into a comatose state so that she would heal faster and also to prevent the permanent damage." The Hyūga nodded at her friend, quickly catching up with Sasuke who was slowly walking towards Hiashi – he was still sitting near the heavily damaged wall, looking completely spaced out and mentally demolished.

They stopped hear the man whom she had once considered her father and the leader of her clan, and then, all of sudden, Hinata realized that she felt nothing as she looked at his blank, bleeding face.  
Without a doubt, the Uchiha made a right decision when he didn't let her kill them. Now that the hatred and rage weren't boiling inside of her anymore, the young woman knew that she would regret it if he didn't stop her.  
Because she felt nothing. They had been her most precious people once, but that time was long gone.

They weren't even of the same clan any longer.

Hinata flinched slightly at the realization and then, as if feeling her uncomfortable reaction without even looking at the kunoichi, Sasuke took her arm into his own, turning his head and giving her a small, reassuring smirk.

 _So warm … and so calming. I love him so much ..._

As she was lost in her feelings for a second, Hinata's Byakugan stopped for a second on Orochimaru, Yutaka and the Edo Tensei with whom they were quietly talking. She was only able to eye him up and down briefly, making a mental note to ask Sasuke later who was this dead man and why he was here to begin with.  
On top of that, his face reminded the kunoichi that of her own husband … was he an Uchiha, too?

"Hiashi," they stopped near the man who raised his head slowly, meeting Sasuke's eyes with an absolutely impassive gaze. "Even though your treacherous subordinate nearly ruined it all, our agreement is still valid since I haven't broken a single point of the covenant. As you could've guessed, I'm taking your daughter as my bride … and, well, just as you asked for it, you have witnessed the ritual yourself, so I suppose we can consider this matter is settled." Surprisingly enough, he wasn't even smiling – apparently this was really important to the Uchiha for some reason Hinata didn't quite understand. Did it have something to do with the relationship between their clans?

"I'm not going to lie … your chances of staying in the position of the head of your clan after this night are nonexistent. The Sixth is already aware of what happened. Therefore from now on I'll consider Hanabi the current head of Hyūga instead of you and thus I'll be dealing with her whenever it comes to any interaction between our clans, all according to our covenant. Thus if you don't mind, I'd like to close this topic unless you have any questions."

The man didn't react, to Sasuke's relief and to Hinata's irritation. Why wasn't he even saying anything ...?

"I'm willing to offer you two options now – I can ravage your mind with my Rinnegan and salvage all the information I need by force, or you can tell us everything yourself in a civilized manner. Are you willing to cooperate?"

The man's white eyes finally slid to the side to meet the disdainful glare of his daughter. He was silent for a few seconds, and just when Hinata felt Sasuke's motion to let go of her hand so that he would be able to touch the man's skin and to use his eye's technique, Hiashi opened his mouth slowly, licking the gore off his dry lips.

"I agree ... I will tell you everything."

"Just like that?" Sasuke frowned – apparently he didn't expect to receive such a response at all.

Hiashi sighed simply, shrugging indifferently.

"I failed to see who you really are, Uchiha Sasuke … and now that I finally realized it, it's pointless to fight any longer. I have lost, and so did my clan. So … yes, I will tell you it all. Although I suppose you should settle down – both of you … this is going to be a long story."

* * *

That night wasn't the most pleasant for Hyūga Hiashi to say the least, for many reasons simultaneously.

First of all, he hated bad weather in general and especially thunder in particular, and now it was there in its full power, piercing the night sky of Konoha with multiple flashy lightnings every few seconds while the unending flow of unusually strong rain was falling down from the sky, constantly knocking at the roof of the building he was currently in, which was already pretty annoying as it was.

Another unpleasant event that took part earlier that day was his long debate with the clan's council concerning his daughter's behavior. It would've been justified, of course, if not for the absolutely ridiculous reason – his three years old Hinata had gotten into a fight with his twin brother Hizashi's son who was a year older than her, and their clash resulted in Neji being taken to a medic ninja afterwards with a few bruises as well as a shoulder dislocation.

Thin incident made him realize once again how flawed and corrupted their clan truly was, because apparently such an innocent accident like the fight between two children was capable of shaking the very foundation of the Hyūga, creating the ludicrously high tension between the Main and the Branch Houses – it was beyond any stupidity, but a mere children's quarrel had been discussed in all the seriousness for a few hours straight, which was pretty exhausting itself, not counting the fact that Hiashi still had to come up with an idea how to deal with Hinata's wayward temper. It was the third time in the last few months when she had gotten into a brawl with another kid, and although normally it would only make him proud of the fact that she was a natural born fighter whose skills desperately craved for training and testing, she needed to learn to behave unless he and Hitomi wanted their older daughter to grow up to become someone like those barbarian Uchiha clan's members.

And of course, on top of everything else that had happened that day, his beloved wife, Hitomi, was about to give birth to his second child – another daughter, to his slight irritation, as hey had confirmed by checking it with the Byakugan as soon as it had become possible a few months ago.

And now he wasn't even able to be there to support her because of the the impossible stupidity of his clansmen. Just what kind of a clan's head could he make by allowing them to do all this nonsense as if it was the most important thing in the world, while in reality it was absolutely nothing …?

Shaking his head in disappointment, Hiashi sighed, finally stepping away from his workplace and walking through the door that led to the corridor which connected the two wings of the massive building.  
He wanted to get to Hitomi as soon as possible, and a short glance at the clock made him realize that he could still manage to come there in time to welcome their newborn child into their world.

"Tō-chan! Tō-chan!" The familiar voice that he loved so much made Hiashi stop, turning around and seeing the little girl who was dressed into a set of simple black kimono, smiling happily as he looked at her – apparently Hinata had been waiting patiently for him to get out of his office for a good hour, hiding behind the door all this time.

The man sighed, bowing down and gripping the giggling child with his arms, putting her onto his shoulders and holding her ankles carefully, wincing slightly as she closed his eyes with her tiny palms the next second, giggling even louder.

"Let's go to k **ā** -chan! I miss her!" Hiashi let out a short laughter, feeling the annoying headache he had been suffering for hours by now rapidly fading away as his daughter's fingers massaged his hair in attempting to get a better grasp so that she wouldn't fall back while he walked down the stairs, picking the shortest route to get to their clan's hospital wing as soon as possible.

"No, young lady. You are going to your room now. This is your punishment for being a tomboy and for bullying your cousin." Her room wasn't on the way at all, and it was actually a good question how he was supposed to take his daughter there – the man certainly didn't feel like letting her go outside under the rain, but on the other hand, letting her see the process of childbirth wasn't something that seemed like a good idea either. Besides, Hitomi probably needed tranquility and rest right now, and it was hardly possible with Hinata around.

"I didn't bully him! He started it! He called me bad words!" The sincere resentment in her voice made Hiashi sigh sadly, shaking his head.

Of course, it was fairly obvious. Ever since Hizashi's death, Neji was noticed to constantly show disrespect towards the Main House members, especially towards his peers. And since the issue was pretty touchy, everyone including himself preferred to ignore the matter until now.

Yet still, even though Hinata didn't really start the conflict with her older brother, she still was demonized by the Branch House for beating him up, which was understandable. After all, she didn't have to be so harsh with a member of her family, no matter what he said. But then again, even though Hiashi would never admit it out loud, her actions really made the man feel proud.

She would make a splendid clan's head in years. Perhaps a far more gifted one than himself.

"I know, sweetheart. I know. But you still need to go to your bed. It's pretty late already. I promise, you'll get to see mommy tomorrow. And if you behave now, there will be a surprise for you in the morning."

"A surprise …?" the girl babbled perplexedly, thinking about it for a moment. "A present?"

"Yes, a present. One that you will like a lot, I promise. So, do we have a deal?"

The girl thought for a few more seconds, apparently weighting out the pros and cons, and then she giggled again, pulling Hiashi's ears.

"Yes! Deal!" The man smiled, but his expression changed quickly as he noticed the kunoichi from the Branch House in the end of the passage.

"Konoko … come here," he ordered, and the black haired woman reached them in just a few seconds, bowing down in respect.

"Hiashi-sama, I'm at your service."

"Please, take Hinata to her bedroom. I need to go and see Hitomi as soon as possible. But please, be careful – the rain outside is really heavy."

She nodded and bowed again, waiting for her superior to hand his suddenly wincing daughter to her.

"Don't worry, Hiashi-sama. Hitomi-sama is doing well," the kunoichi smiled warmly, hugging Hinata who looked like she was about to start crying.

"Is that so …?" the man drawled timidly, looking at the door to the final passage that led to the room he was heading to.

"Yes. But I'm afraid you're a bit late ..."

"Late?!" He gasped. "You mean ..."

"Yes." Konoko smiled again, making a welcoming gesture with her free hand. "Please, go to her. She needs you now."

The man nodded quickly, activating his Byakugan and rushing towards the hospital ward.

He could see her small frame even before he entered the room – it was a tiny brown haired girl, just like they had anticipated. Coming close to Hitomi's bed, he smiled softly, meeting the exhausted yet happy gaze of his wife who was holding the newborn tightly to her chest.

"I'm so glad you have come …," she whispered, closing her tearful eyes and letting out a long, tired sigh.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you … it's just that the Branch House–"

"Shush," she smiled again, nodding at the child who was already sleeping peacefully. "Look at her."

He did as she told him, bowing down and giving his daughter's face a long, studying look.

"She inherited your looks … unlike Hinata," he didn't reply, suppressing his own tears of joy. Hitomi was right – their child's features already resembled his own, whereas Hinata was nearly a carbon copy of her mother.

"Yes … so I take it it's my turn to choose a name?" He smirked, and Hitomi giggled. Although it was an old tradition in the ancient clans for the father to choose a name for his child, he had agreed with the name his wife had chosen for their firstborn three years ago, because he loved this woman with everything he had, and also because Hinata was a beautiful name in his opinion anyway, so he had no reason to argue, and neither did he really want to.

"Yes. It's your turn. Have you decided?" She looked at him curiously, unable to suppress a light sneer at his overly serious expression.

The man was silent for a good minute before he finally opened his mouth, uttering,

"Hanabi."

"Huh? Fireworks?" Hitomi blinked, apparently not expecting something like that.

"Yes. You don't like it?" He bristled, making the woman let out a weak laughter.

"No. I just didn't see that coming. But it makes sense. You always loved watching fireworks, after all. I hope you will love watching her growing up just as much."

He blushed sheepishly which made his wife take his hand into hers and brush it reassuringly with her fingers.

"I like it," she added, making him look into her happy eyes.

"Really?" She nodded, and Hiashi smiled as well, kissing her on the lips.

"How is Hinata?" Hitomi asked suddenly, making Hiashi frown – her expression changed to an anxious one nearly instantly, which was strange. Where did this even come from?

"She's alright. She wanted to come along to see you, but I made Konoko take her to her bedroom. She has beaten Neji up, can you believe this?" He laughed, but his expression changed as he noticed that Hitomi didn't react to the news at all. "What's wrong, honey?"

"I have a bad feeling, Hiashi … can you please check Hinata? I'm still too weak to activate my Byakugan–"

"You don't really need to do it. She's right here," the foreign voice broke through the heavy air of the room, making both the ninja hold their breaths and glance at the balcony.

Hiashi jumped up, and Hitomi nestled Hanabi, as if afraid that the mysterious man would steal their daughter from her.

"Who … who the hell are you? And what–"

"Be quiet. You don't want me to kill your precious children right away, do you?"

The eyes of the parents widened simultaneously as they finally noticed it – Hinata was levitating midair behind the stranger's back, seemingly unconscious.

And the man himself was probably the weirdest person Hiashi had ever seen in his life.

His skin was pale, far paler than that of any of the Hyūga clan's off-springs which were known for this exact trait. His eyes were cyan, and it seemed like they were shining with some barely notable yet a bit frightening dim light. His messy silver hair was only making his appearance seem even more weird than it already was, and on top of that, he was wearing the pretty unusual for their country rich-looking white kimono – its collar and the cuffs covered with multiple black magatama, and there also were nine of them on its back as Hiashi could see with his dōjutsu, and above them was the symbol that reminded of a ripple pattern.

"Who are you?! Let our daughter go, you filth!"

"Hiashi …," the man gasped in surprise when Hitomi's fingers clenched around his wrist tightly. Her own dōjutsu was now activated despite what she said a minute ago, and apparently she was checking the foreigner's chakra system ...

Which made her husband's eyes widen in fear when he did the same.

The amount of the mysterious stranger's chakra, as well as its potency were easily on the level of a bijū, and seeing as he could float in the air, making Hinata levitate nearby, too, made Hiashi realize why Hitomi stopped him a second ago.

This man, whoever he was … his power was far beyond their comprehension.

"Wise decision, Hyūga Hitomi. You are still as bright as you were back in the years."

Hiashi's eyes widened and he looked at his wife in confusion and shock.

"You … do you know him …?" She shook her head slowly, biting her lip.

"Oh, there is no need to hide it anymore. The chakra of my clan runs through your older daughter's system, after all."

Hiashi recoiled from Hitomi's bed, moving his shocked gaze from his wife, who started crying, to the man that eyed both of them impassively, with the small polite smile being the only indicator of his emotions.

"No … no, Hiashi …! I love you! This isn't what you–"

"Shut up!" He barked, moving his eyes to the stranger. "What do you want? And who the hell are you?"

The man smirked, still levitating in the air and not moving at all.

"I've come to collect what is rightfully mine, as well as to save your own clan, so please, do not interfere."

"My own clan …?" The Hyūga patriarch murmured, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"Our clans originate from the one and same source, Hyūga Hiashi. My name is Ōtsutsuki Toneri. As I said a minute ago, I've met your wife before, and I have something to do with your older daughter. Albeit …," he stopped, suddenly glancing at Hitomi. "It's none of my business, but think you should do something to help her before it's too late. I can sense that heartbeat is weakening."

As if getting snapped out of a some lucid dream, Hiashi looked at Hitomi to check her condition, and stormed to her the next second, gripping the woman's hand – evidently the stranger didn't lie. She had lost consciousness and paled notably, and her heart was indeed slowing down. Apparently the stress was too much for her, especially after the childbirth …

"No … no! Hitomi …!"

"Since it doesn't concern me, I'll continue from where we stopped, it's up to you if you'll be listening or not," the man kept talking casually, completely ignoring the devastating scene that was happening right in front of him. "Like I said, our clans originate from the certain person named Ōtsutsuski Kaguya. Aside from being the most powerful being in existence, she was also the mother of the two sons – Hagoromo, commonly known as the Sage of the Six Paths in your world, and Hamura of whom you most likely know nothing, naturally."

Hiashi formed a few hand seals, hitting Hitomi's tenketsu in order to innervate her Gate of Death and thus her heart as well – it was the most common and also the most effective first aid technique of their clan.

"As the older brother, Hamura was the one who took the leadership of our clan and kept the legacy of the Ōtsutsuki, as well as gave the beginning to you, the Hyūga," Hiashi glared at him, still trying to revive his wife but mesmerized by Toneri's words at the same time, as if forgetting about everything else for a moment.

"Centuries ago, Kaguya decided to rule the world with her tremendous power. No … actually, all the existing worlds, but it doesn't concern you. What really matters is that she wanted to enslave every single human being in your world. Fortunately enough, her sons have stopped her by sealing her shell into the moon they have created together, which became the home to our clan later, and by splitting her chakra into the nine parts, leaving them in this world in the form of …

"...the bijū," Hiashi whispered, finally understanding what Toneri was talking about.

The man nodded, confirming his assumption.

"Precisely. This way, it has become nearly impossible to revive her, but make no mistake – Kaguya is still alive. And she will come back, according to the old prophecy of the Ōtsutsuki."

"What do we have to do with this?!" Hiashi cried, gritting his teeth – Hitomi's heartbeat was becoming weaker with every second.

Toneri smiled kindly.

"Be patient. We are about to get to that part. Your wife is an enormously wise woman for someone of your kind. Back when she was a teenager, she was reading lots of the old scrolls of your clan which you probably have never cared to look at, and eventually it led her to deduce the truth about your ancestors and about their connection with us. The idea of finding a way to come in contact with the people on the moon never left her ever since that moment."

"You are saying that your people live on the moon, yet it's clear that nobody has ever seen any trace of your presence there, otherwise the moon wouldn't be considered uninhabited. How is this possible?" Hiashi asked, letting out a sigh of relief – thanks to his jutsu, Hitomi's heartbeat rhythm became steady again.

"Because you can see only one side of the moon, Hyūga Hiashi. The other one is always hidden from your eyes. But that also is the weak spot of our defense."

"A weak spot …?" Hiashi babbled confusedly, staring at his nonchalant face.

"There is a reason why it is impossible to maintain a connection between the moon and your world most of the time. It is because of the barrier Hamura created in order to prevent anyone of your world from coming there. It is impossible to use any, as your people call it, 'space-time ninjutsu' to come to our home – it only works in the opposite way and only for the descendants of our clan, which is why I'm here now. But, like I said and pretty much like it is with everything in our universe, there is a weak spot. And your wife was lucky, or rather unlucky enough to stumble upon it.

"And of course you won't tell me what that weak spot is, will you …?" Hiashi growled quietly, but to his surprise, Toneri smirked.

"I will. It doesn't matter if you know or not. The barrier wanes during eclipse when it focuses all of its power to protect the other side of the moon from the solar radiation. And your wife tried to send the message to us just exactly during an eclipse. That's how we found out that the other group of Hamura's descendants is here, alive and well, which confirmed the words of the prophecy. That's why we needed to come here as soon as possible in order to prevent the upcoming doom. "

"This prophecy you are talking about … what does it say?"

The Ōtsutsuki sighed, closing his eyes – his annoying smile finally disappeared, to Hiashi's relief.

"The woman of the other world that would possess the chakra of both of our clans will reunite Hamura's descendants once and for all one day, and this reunion is supposed to either destroy all of us by allowing Kaguya to get revived, or to let us rule the world together until the end of time."

"And this woman is Hitomi? Is that what you're trying to say?"

Toneri opened his eyes, looking at him as if Hiashi was a silly child that didn't understand the simplest things.

"Her name was never specified, Hyūga Hiashi. But we are pretty sure that it happens to be your older daughter."

"What …? Hinata? But why?! Why does she possess the chakra of your clan?" He blurted out, standing up – Hitomi was still unconscious, but at least stable thanks to his effort.

"When Hitomi summoned us to this world unwillingly by sending that signal, she's become the link connecting the two realms, which led her to receiving a portion of Hamura's chakra from the barrier she had broken through. Unfortunately for all of us, she already was pregnant with young Hinata at the time. And it was only natural that her child inherited this chakra. Your wife's curiosity has caused all this, and there is nothing either of us can do about it now. Because the last part of the prophecy states it clearly. The countdown has already started, Hyūga Hiashi."

"What does this last part say?" The Hyūga clan's head whispered, feeling himself completely drained and defeated.

The man was right – there was nothing they could do. They were completely at his mercy now, so the only option remaining for him was trying to understand the stranger's reasoning. Perhaps if he got it right … he would be able to come to an agreement with this alien man. Or, simply put, to fool him.

"There is an Ōtsutsuki in your world, Hyūga Hiashi. No … actually, there are two of them. The two sons of Hagoromo are still alive."

Hiashi frowned.

"How is this possible? Weren't they supposed to live centuries ago?"

Toneri nodded in agreement.

"Yes, they did. But these two have attained immortality, as far we know. Whenever their physical bodies die, they are being reincarnated into this world again. And right now, they are alive and well. I can sense their presence, even from here … although they are merely children at the moment. But that's not the point. The older brother, Ōtsutsuki Indra. He is the only one who matters when it comes to the prophecy. If your daughter meets him and if he corrupts her enough, it's an inevitable end for both the Hyūga and the Ōtsutsuki, because it will lead your daughter, this innocent little girl, to becoming the new vessel of Kaguya. We can't allow this to happen."

Hiashi swallowed heavily, nodding slowly. He understood it, at last – if what Toneri was saying was true, and there was no reason not to believe him considering all the evidence that supported his words, it couldn't be allowed to happen.

"On the other hand, if I take her with me now, I will be able to teach her the ancient techniques of our ancestors, and she will grow to be able to lead us to rule the world. It's the other option that is mentioned in the prophecy, and it's the only way to prevent the possibility of her meeting the current Indra's incarnation. And I intend to do just that."

The Hyūga clan's head clenched his fists, rapidly thinking what to do.

This Ōtsutsuki only needed his daughter to corrupt her himself, that much was obvious. The lust for power was the only thing that really drove him – he wanted to enslave the world himself instead of this Kaguya, it was pretty clear by now.

But what could he do to stop him? To stop all this?

"Look … you're saying that Hinata, my daughter … she is supposed to be very powerful and gifted, isn't that right? In case if your prophecy is correct, that is, " Hiashi muttered slowly, watching the man's cyan eyes carefully as they narrowed at him.

"Yes, that is true."

"But see, here is the problem. She's not gifted at all. If anything, until now she's only been a disappointment to everyone in our clan," he lied without even blinking. "Besides, the amount of your ancestor's chakra she received from her mother should be ridiculously small, close to nonexistent. Think about it."

The Ōtsutsuki's eyebrow cocked skeptically as he turned his head to give the unconscious girl as thoughtful look.

"Is that so …?"

Hiashi nodded.

"Yes. I understand the importance of your mission, and I want to cooperate. But at the same time, it would be horrible if you turn to be wrong, wouldn't it?"

Toneri listened silently, allowing him to continue.

"You said that this Indra is still a child, just like her. What if we wait for a few years just to make sure that you're not wrong? And in the meantime, I swear that I'll be careful not to let her to come in contact with anyone whom I will at least remotely suspect in being Indra's incarnation. This way, I'll get a chance to save my daughter … you won't have to deal with a child, and we'll negate the possibility of making a mistake."

The alien was silent for a few seconds, apparently thinking over Hiashi's words. It took the Hyūga all of his willpower to remain calm – since the Ōtsutsuki apparently could feel his heartbeat, it was mandatory to remain as cool as possible while he was making his decision.

"This sounds reasonable, Hyūga Hiashi," he finally said. "And you seem to be sincere. Fair enough. I will let you raise this girl. But I will be coming here to check her from time to time, and if I find out that you are wrong, I will take her to our realm without notifying you. Be prepared. Until then, beware of Indra. He is said to be incredibly smart and cunning."

"I will!" Hiashi blurted out happily seeing as Hinata's motionless body was lowered onto the wooden floor.

"Don't be so hasty to celebrate it. If it's not her, then it's most likely her mother. Unlike her daughter, she's undeniably gifted, isn't she? I need to get rid of her just in case."

"What …!"

Hitomi's eyes snapped open and she coughed – the blood streamed down her chin as she stared at Hiashi in pain and fear.

The man rushed to her bed, falling onto his knees and hugging his wife, as well as Hanabi who opened her eyes and started crying when her mother moved.

"I … I'm sorry … Hiashi … I'm so sorry …," Hitomi whispered weakly, not moving her loving eyes from his own.

He could see it with his Byakugan - her heart was literally crushed, apparently by Toneri's power.

Feeling his own upcoming tears, Hiashi touched the woman's forehead with his own, closing his eyes.

"What have you done, my love … what have you done …?" he whispered, biting his lip and suppressing the urge to sob like a little child.

Why? Why was this happening to them? Just an hour ago, his world was perfect, and now it had fallen apart completely. His beloved wife was dying, his heir would have to live a miserable life with her abilities being suppressed for the sake of saving her from this alien bastard, and he …

He could very well become responsible for his clan's extinction just out of his selfish desire to save his daughter's life.

"I … love … you …"

Hitomi's last whisper was faintly discernible, but Hiashi heard it nonetheless, as well as her last breath.

He turned his face to look at Hinata who was still lying on the floor, not moving but at least breathing.

"We'll meet again, Hyūga Hiashi."

The man disappeared, leaving the Hyūga family in the misery of the empty room.

A minute of silence passed before Hinata finally moved, slowly getting up from the floor and looking at the spot where Toneri stood not long ago.

Hiashi frowned, looking at his daughter distantly.

He had managed to fool the Ōtsutsuki, but his prophecy seemed to be accurate. And considering that he would have to turn the life of his daughter into utter hell from now on … did it even worth it? He would likely have to kill her one day should she get out of his control … this would be the only way to prevent the prophecy from fulfilling if its contents turned to be correct, in one way or another.

He shook his head with resolve, collecting himself.

If doing so would save his clan, or even their whole world … the end justified the means.

* * *

"Hey, Sasuke, Hinata! We did it! Kusa is under control now, it was a piece of cake!" Naruto landed onto the floor of the hall next to Karin, looking at everyone around himself with a baffled expression. "What's goin' on here?"

"The prophecy is wrong, Hiashi," said Sasuke, ignoring the unexpected emergence of his friend and wrapping his arm around Hinata's waist. The kunoichi looked like she was about to collapse any moment, but at the same time, she seemed to be eager to know more about the prophecy and the dark secrets of her family's past.

The older man gave him a small ironic smirk.

"Exactly how is it wrong? You are Indra, you have basically said it yourself. And now the two of you are bound ... I failed it all. Thanks to my actions, we're all on our way to our graves right now."

Sasuke sighed.

"Not quite. Whereas it's true and I am Indra, and me and Hinata are indeed bound, the prophecy is still wrong. You see ... Madara wasn't the one who initiated the Infinite Tsukuyomi back during the war."

Orochimaru smirked triumphantly while Hiashi's eyes widened slowly as he finally slipped out of his melancholic state, beginning to realize what the Uchiha was about to tell.

There were a few seconds of grave silence in which Sasuke turned his head to meet the troubled gaze of his temporary revived father's eyes - he and Yutaka seemed to be the most confused out of everyone else who were present there since both of them knew next to nothing about this part of his past, but it didn't matter at the moment.

He would deal with his clansmen later.

Meeting the blue eyes of Naruto for a moment and receiving an approving nod, he continued,

"Black Zetsu manipulated Madara to make the preparations for the great genjutsu as well as for the revival of Kaguya, which he did. But we stopped her. Me and Naruto ... or rather the incarnation of the other son of the Sage. We sealed her away by creating another moon, and this time it was done in a completely different dimension. I assure you, there is no way for her to come back. The prophecy is wrong."

Hiashi's shocked gaze moved to meet Hinata's eyes which were full of tears that rolled down her blanched face for a few minutes by now, but she didn't seem to pay attention to that, too shocked by all the revelations of the night.

"So ... this Toneri ..."

"He either lied to you or was wrong himself. I'm not going to corrupt your daughter, Hiashi. Until now, I've only been undoing the damage you've been causing to her for years.

The man opened his mouth, and his voice was completely shrunken as he murmured,

"I ... daughter ... I ..."

"I understand why you did this to me," Hinata suddenly said, and there was no sign of insecurity neither in her expression nor in her voice.

"You ... you do?"

"Yes. But I will never, ever forgive you. You can stay alive, you can come back to Konoha, I don't care. But if you cross my way again, I'll kill you without hesitation. The same will happen if you try to meddle into my clan's business."

Hiashi gasped, but he already realized what she was talking about before he even managed to finish his next question,

"Your clan ...?"

"Yes. My clan. I'm Uchiha Hinata. And you will have to deal with it. All of you."


	24. Requiem for the Past

**Chapter 24. Requiem for the Past**

"Are you sure that this is what he really deserves...?" Naruto drawled doubtfully, glaring at the back of the man who was walking away from them, slowly deepening into the heavy fog, limping and hunching slightly as if he was afraid that they could change their mind in the last moment and finish him off.

"Who do you think I am? You?" Sasuke scowled, turning away and striding in the opposite side, making the blond sigh and charge ahead to catch up with his friend and the third figure that was accompanying them all along.

"Well, you didn't want to kill him, obviously ... or at least you didn't want Hinata to either do that herself or to see him dying. But, eh … to be honest, I was pretty sure that you were going to bury him here. And as a matter of fact, this time I wasn't even going to try to stop ya, teme." The Uzumaki frowned, staring at the horizon thoughtfully.

Sasuke didn't need to look at his friend to realize that the blond was deeply concerned with what had happened a day before in the Tower. Despite his reasoning being understandable, Hyūga Hiashi was a criminal who had murdered ruthlessly more than a few of his own clansmen ... by the law of Konoha and any other Great Country, he was to be executed on the spot for committing such a serious crime that, in a way, could be compared to the Uchiha massacre. And as much as Naruto despised the idea of killing criminals since it always led to prolonging the chain of vengeance and hatred, he had put up with the fact that Sasuke most likely would end the man's life as soon as they'd leave Amegakure by using the Uchiha's newly discovered ability to open dimensional rifts.

And now that Hiashi was going away from them freely in the direction that, according to Sasuke's word, led towards one of the godforsaken settlements of the Land of Water, the jinchūriki felt quite confused by his friend's decision. It was fairly obvious that Sasuke didn't let the man get away just out of his forgiving nature, and somehow the Uchiha's barely notable satisfied grin led the blond to the belief that there was something else beneath such an act that seemed so generous and kind at the first approach.

"Come on, teme … what's your plan for him?"

"Haven't figured it out yet, huh? And they say you grew smarter lately." Much to Sasuke's surprise, Naruto didn't respond to the childish taunt at all, waiting patiently for the reply to his question, which in turn made the Uchiha realize that his friend has truly matured ... a little bit.

"Don't you think it's a bit too harsh, Sasuke …?" Fugaku muttered, finally breaking the oppressive silence. "Leaving a Hyūga in a place full of Kekkei Genkai hunters … it's actually worse than killing him considering how far they always go in order to protect the secrets of their eyes."

Sasuke shook his head without looking at either of his companions.

"No … it's not. I'm merely putting him in Hinata's shoes. He forced her to spend the last six months as a nukenin, and she had to stay on guard every second of this time thanks to his actions. I think it serves him right," he snapped, to which neither Naruto nor Fugaku responded, walking quietly across the bleary field.

"What a creepy place … I don't even have an idea where we are," the Uzumaki groaned, squinting and trying look through the haze to figure their location out.

"You don't really have to know. It's not like we're ever coming back here."

"Yea, right, ya didn't have to take me here to begin with, y'know … I'd prefer a more comfy place to spend my day off."

"Speaking of which … why did you want _me_ to follow you two, Sasuke? I was pretty sure that I've answered all of your questions …," asked Fugaku, looking at his son's nape curiously, which made the younger Uchiha stop, finally turning to them and meeting his father's anxious gaze.

"Yes … you have. And that's precisely why both of you are here now. Naruto … you still have some chakra of Ichibi, is that correct?"

The blond blinked a few times with a baffled expression, evidently taken by surprise with his friend's sudden question, but nodded nonetheless.

"Yea, I do. Why?"

Sasuke nodded approvingly as well, closing his eyes and sighing deeply.

"For the same reason why I made Orochimaru perform the jutsu in the first place. Father is one of the strongest ninja the Uchiha clan has ever produced. That's why I want to seal this Edo Tensei somewhere Orochimaru would never be able to find it. And that's also why I brought both of you here. I will not allow him to control any member of my clan ever again, dead or alive. Therefore I want you to use your Jiton chakra to seal it away, Naruto."

The jinchūriki swallowed hesitantly, moving his gaze to the older Uchiha who snorted, closing his own unnatural black eyes.

"I see … it's a wise decision, son. I'm happy to see that you care for the honor of the Uchiha clan so much. I can go back to the afterlife with peace of mind." The revived man smiled happily, which made his son look away.

"I hope you don't condemn me for my decisions … father."

Fugaku came close to his son, rustling his hair and making Naruto hold back a giggle at his friend's childishly embarrassed face.

"I have no right to condemn you, Sasuke. Nobody has. Seeing that you are still alive and sane is all that really matters to me. And since you have your wife and Minato's boy to help you achieve your goals, I can rest assured that our clan's mistakes of the past haven't ruined your life completely." Fugaku winked at the Uzumaki, making him smile cheerfully. "Besides, Minato was my friend, too. If not for his demise, perhaps the tragedy that happened to the Uchiha could have been avoided. And now the two of you have a chance to fix it all. To change the village … and this world. I believe in you."

A single tear rolled down Sasuke's cheek, making the young man wipe it away as soon as possible.

"Thank you."

Fugaku smiled warmly, stepping back.

"Goodbye, son." He looked at Naruto who formed a Rasengan in his hand the same second – the swirling blue orb was covered with the Ichibi's sealing pattern.

"Farewell … dad."

Waiting for a moment to make sure that Sasuke didn't want to add anything else, Naruto slammed the Rasengan into Fugaku's chest, making the bizarre pattern cover the damaged fake body rapidly, sealing it away within just a few seconds.

They stayed like that for a good minute, looking silently at the motionless mass of sealed chakra while the fog around them thickened to the point where it became hard for the two shinobi to recognize the features of each other.

And then Naruto flinched suddenly, turning to his friend and giving him a slightly troubled look.

"Hey, Sasuke … we should get going. My clone has just dispelled – Hanabi is waiting for you not far away from the gates of the village. She says everything is ready."

The Uchiha kept gazing at the remains of his father's artificial body for a few more seconds before nodding slowly, turning backwards and channeling the chakra into his Rinnegan.

"Let's go." The familiar rift opened in front of them, sending chills down Naruto's spine – the memories of Kaguya using the same technique were still pretty fresh.

"Are you alright?" The blond asked suddenly, making the Uchiha who was about to step through the portal stop midway, albeit not turning around to face his friend.

"Yes. I am. Though I'd feel much better if you stopped trying to be my caring mommy and stuck to the plan instead."

The Uzumaki grinned contentedly without saying anything in response. Instead, the shinobi performed _Hiraishin no Jutsu_ and disappeared, happy to finally leave the unsightly place for good.

* * *

"Evidently Hiashi's plan has succeeded … in a way." The gray haired man with white eyes uttered quietly, watching from the broad balustrade as a few Konoha's chūnin walked slowly towards the gates of the Hyūga clan's compound, holding a large wooden coffin and led by the young heir to their clan along with Uchiha Sasuke and the Sixth Hokage.

"Yes … that it has," the old woman that stood next to him replied quietly after a short pause, activating her dōjutsu and checking the insides of the coffin with her eyes.

"He's not back, though. I think it's safe to assume that he's dead. What are we going to do now?"

The woman frowned, massaging her aching temple with her fingertips.

"We need to find a way to get to his older daughter. She was the only one to awaken that Kekkei Genkai in centuries … and now she's left the clan. Such a waste ..." She sighed, shaking her head.

The man's wrinkled eyes narrowed in apparent displease as he glared at the Uchiha's impassive face with his on Byakugan.

"He has fulfilled his promise. We'll have to give him a bride when he asks to. And to deal with him as with our ally from now on, too."

The woman shrugged indifferently, looking away from the humble procession that was closing in to them.

"So what? Given that we'll have to accept Hiashi's daughter, who, if I need to remind you, is the Sixth's agent, as our new head, it's not the worst of our problems. At least the boy is ridiculously strong and smart at the same time. He will be of use to us."

"I still don't like the idea of cooperating with an Uchiha," the man groaned willfully, looking away as well.

The woman smirked, tapping his hand gently.

"Our time is long gone, Hiruka. All we still can do is maintaining the well being of the clan. And with the Uchiha's protection, we are relatively safe. Besides, we are going to be related to him one day. Don't forget about it."

He gripped the railing of the balcony tightly and clenched his teeth, suppressing a hateful growl.

"His father has killed my son."

The woman shrugged indifferently again.

"Your son was a nukenin. He got what he deserved."

"Yet still …!"

"Listen now, you old fool," she hissed, and her expression changed dramatically, making the man gasp and shut up under her piercing glare. "After all the years you've spent living a useless life, you should have realized by now that the world isn't just painted white and black. It's always about the opportunities we receive from fate. Right now, we should be thankful to this brat for getting us rid of Hiashi."

"Even if he gets the virtual control over our clan?!"

"Yes."

Hiruka gasped, staring at his sister in disbelief.

"How can you say something like that? I thought we have protected ourselves from that genjutsu of his ...?"

She blinked a few times before starting to laugh, shaking her head.

"No, you really are an idiot … you always were. Listen here. It is at this point obvious that the Uchiha has sided both with the Sixth and with Hiashi's daughters. Considering that the Fourth's son is his childhood friend, it's safe to say that Uchiha Sasuke is the one who currently holds the entire world in his grasp. Do you seriously think that we can do anything to oppose him?"

Hiruka gave the woman a long, conflicted stare before lowering his head in defeat.

"You are right … we can't. I suppose I just hate the idea of losing to this brat …"

"Whether you hate it or not, we've already lost. Right now, the best thing we can do is to take the bait and to pretend that we believe whatever story they are going to feed us with. We must not let them know that his genjutsu hasn't affected the two of us. And in the meantime … we'll try to earn his trust, very slowly, step by step, year by year. Rumors say that he's already on the level of Uchiha Madara … and considering that he wants to restore his clan, he's going to become a father to many children with incredible potential. And it's safe to assume that some of them will be born with Byakugan. Can you see all the opportunities it would provide us with?" Her greedy gaze made Hiruka shudder, looking away thoughtfully.

She was right. After all, if this Uchiha was anything like his great ancestor, should his child really have Byakugan instead of Sharingan, it would get kicked out of the Uchiha clan the instant it's born. And then, they would be able to claim it as their own … the true heir to the Hyūga clan. The one that would make them great once again!

"I … I see now, Hikari. You are right, as always. I was too hasty to judge ... the whole situation."

The old woman's lips twisted into a sinister grin.

"It's good that you understand now. The Uchiha intends to use the strong genes of our clan to empower his future off-springs, but he fails to realize that this is exactly what we will do to him. _We_ will use him, and not the other way around. He is our blessing, not our curse, Hiruka. That's how we should see him from now on."

The old man nodded quickly, looking at the raven haired young man with his Byakugan once again.

"You are right, sister. You are always right."

* * *

"Nukenin number one hundred ninety three, Hyūga Hinata, is dead. Genin Uchiha Sasuke took care of this mission. Therefore I hereby declare his promotion to jōnin, if nobody objects." Kakashi looked around the round shaped room, meeting the multiple incredulous gazes of the Village Council's members directed at him.

"Is this information accurate? What about Hiashi? His name has disappeared from our clan's scroll as well." The white eyed man in the corner of the room barked, staring at the Sixth with apparent suspicion.

"Hyūga Hiashi has been killed in action by Hinata. Hyūga Hanabi has confirmed this earlier when we carried Hinata's body into the domain of her former clan, according to the existing tradition. We also had received a message from Hyūga Kō earlier, stating the same," came the emotionless reply of the Hokage, which made the older man turn away, snorting contemptuously.

"Suit youself, then. The brat did a good job, after all."

Nobody else said anything against Kakashi's decision concerning his former student, so the gray haired man put the seal onto the paper that was lying on the table right in front of him.

"It's settled, then. According to the tradition, the burial of the deceased Hyūga ninja will take part immediately after this meeting is over."

"What about the survivor?" Shikamaru asked calmly, looking curiously at the Hyūga elder who closed his eyes, seemingly ignoring everything that was going on around him.

"Kō, huh …?" Kakashi drawled, scratching his chin under his mask. "He's under my personal protection as a member of the top secret ANBU black ops squad. His mission was to ensure the elimination of the nukenin and to provide us with the detailed report concerning Uchiha Sasuke's performance, which he did. Since he also didn't take part in the combat, he's free from any charges. Besides, considering that Hyūga Hanabi is to become the new head of the Hyūga clan, her duty as an ANBU will have to stop, naturally. Kō shall replace her under my direct command starting from tomorrow."

"It's all nice and very interesting, but what about the situation between Amegakure and Kusagakure? Akatsuki have finally made their move, and I think it's far more important than discussing the children's play," said Koharu, gazing at the Sixth gloomily.

Kakashi's eyebrow cocked as he turned his head towards the old woman.

"What do you find so important about it, Koharu-san? According to the Pact, we are not allowed to interfere unless they attack us or any other Great Country directly. Our hands are tied here."

"Hiashi sure chose the perfect time to infiltrate Amegakure. Right when they were busy in Kusa … speaking of which, their performance there was pretty impressive. To take over the entire country within just one night … that's quite something," Homura sighed, shaking his head. "We're going to face a big problem should they decide to attack Konoha."

"Not while Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke are on our side. That's most likely the reason why they don't dare to meddle with the Land of Fire," Akimichi Chōza reasoned, giving the elder a small, prideful grin. "By the way … aren't we supposed to have problems with the other Great Countries? After all, Uchiha Sasuke is a shinobi of Konoha, and he virtually attacked another country, which is against the terms of the Pact. Have you received any protest notes from the other villages, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, we have received an inquiry message from Kumogakure. Because of what happened, an urgent Gokage summit will be held in Suna in three days. Don't worry about it, though. Me and Nara-san have already worked out the plan to back up our actions, so it most likely won't lead to anything serious. After all, Sasuke only took down a single kunoichi, and a nukenin of Konoha at that. As far as I'm aware, we have the right to do deal with our nukenin in the other countries so long as no collateral damage is inflicted. Hiashi-san chose the right time to attack indeed. He was a truly bright man." Kakashi sighed sadly, lowering his head in a silent mourn, and so did everyone in the room.

A few seconds later, the Sixth looked around the council, taking the papers from his table and handing them to Shizune who was standing quietly next to him.

"Since we've discussed everything relevant for today, the meeting is over now if there is no objections." None followed, and the Hokage walked out of the room, followed by his assistant and by the Nara genius.

"It went relatively smooth … I expected more trouble to deal with," Shikamaru mumbled as the three of them passed through the doors that led out to the sunny street.

"True … although Sasuke's improvised move sure took me by surprise for sure. And pissed me off a little bit, too."

"It seems like he still doesn't trust you, Hokage-sama," said Shizune with the notes of both sadness and concern in her voice.

"Of course he doesn't. Sasuke is anything but an idiot, and trusting anyone in his position is nearly suicidal … no offence, Kakashi-san," Shikamaru smirked which made the Sixth let out a loud sigh.

"I know, I know … I should've expected him to pull something like that. Fortunately enough, the only consequence I'm going to suffer is attending the summit … and a lot of bureaucratic stuff to spend my evenings on. Just like always … sometimes I miss just being a jōnin." He scratched his nape as they turned to the lane that led to the Hokage's residence and stopped, seeing quite a big crowd blocking their way to the building. "What on earth is going on?" Kakashi frowned, squinting in the warm rays of the sun and trying to see what earned so much attention of people.

"I'll fucking kill you, Uchiha! Did you hear me? I swear, I'll kill you one day! You will pay for what you've done! You will pay!"

The Hokage slapped his forehead, sighing tiredly.

"I only left him alone for an hour, and he's already made a fuss ..."

"Yeah, I think they went a bit overboard with the show," Shikamaru sneered as he finally saw what was going on just a hundred yards ahead from them.

Sasuke leaned against the wooden fencing, gazing impassively at the brown haired boy who looked like he was about to explode, being held by four ninja at the same time and trying desperately to break out of their tight grip to reach the raven haired man.

"You can try it anytime you want, just don't be so noisy and cocky about your intentions, it's annoying and embarrassing," came the calm and nearly polite reply, which made Kiba's face redden even more.

"Let me go, you bastards ...! I'll free this village from this monster for good!" He growled, slamming his elbow into the face of one of the shinobi that were holding him, making the man let him go and grip the bleeding nose with a cry of pain.

"What monster are you talking about, you idiot? He killed a traitor, a terrorist and an enemy of the village!" Somebody from the crowd yelled at the Inuzuka, making him turn in the direction of the voice and nearly scream,

"Shut the fuck up! You know nothing …!"

"No, you shut up! Somebody, take this retard away already!"

"Silence!" Kakashi's voice made everyone close their months and turn the heads in their direction. "What's going on here? Kiba?" He peered at the teen demandingly, waiting for the answer.

"I … Hokage-sama, he killed Hinata …!"

"Yes, I'm aware of that. Sasuke took down the nukenin in accordance with the mission I gave him. Thanks to him, Akatsuki have suffered a significant loss, and now they will think twice as much if they decide to attack Konoha in future."

"But …!"

"Wait a second … so the Uchiha is on our side, after all?" Another voice came from the crowd, sounding doubtful yet hopeful at the same time.

"Yes, he is. Sasuke is a competent jōnin of Konoha. Hopefully this will put and end to all the rumors once and for all. Now, everyone, please, get back to your business. I'll take care of the situation myself. And let Kiba go already, he won't do anything stupid anymore." The Inuzuka fell onto his knees the next second, and despite the polite tone of the request of the Sixth, everyone around realized that it was more like an order, so the crowd started to disperse reluctantly.

Once the space around them became more less free, Shikamaru, Kakashi and Shizune came close to the two former classmates who refused to look at each other – Kiba still looked absolutely murderous, and Sasuke was his exact polarity, looking at the three of them with a completely bored and indifferent expression.

"Kiba, Kurenai was looking for you, so I think you should go and find her as soon as possible. Sasuke, proceed to my office, we need to talk. Now." The Inuzuka gritted his teeth hatefully, turning around and running away while the Uchiha just snorted in his usual depreciating manner, but followed the order nonetheless.

"I see you really want to whitewash your name in the village, Sasuke," Kakashi glanced at him over his shoulder, making Sasuke raise up his eyes at his former sensei as they entered the building and walked up the wooden spiral stair.

"I do. We intend to come back to the village after we finish this grand mission you gave us," he replied calmly, as if not understanding what the Sixth was referring to, following the three of ninja into the familiar room.

Kakashi sighed, sitting down to his chair and locking his hands in front of the masked face, looking at the Uchiha searchingly.

"I'm not going to pretend that I don't know why you've done what you've done. But I must say that it hurts me to see that you didn't believe me when I said that I'd never use you like that."

"Not that you gave me any reasons to believe you. Furthermore, everything seemed to be quite the opposite lately."

They stared into each others' eyes silently for a few seconds while Shizune looked at them worriedly, and Shikamaru just turned away, gazing at the street through the window lazily, as if their conversation was far too boring for him to even pay attention, though in reality he just wanted to stay out of their conflict.

"True. And I'm sorry for that," Kakashi finally uttered, lowering his eyes shamefully, to which the Uchiha just shrugged casually.

"You don't need to apologize now that I have ensured my safety anyway. And even though I tend to believe you now, it doesn't really matter since from now on. You don't have anything to blackmail me with even if you wanted to."

Kakashi shook his head, sighing and smiling sadly under his mask.

"Fair enough. You still have ruined Hinata's reputation in the village, though. Doesn't she care?"

"No, she doesn't. When we come back to Konoha, she'll be known as another member of the Uchiha clan, presumably one of the outcasts I've found during my journey around the world. In other words, nothing interesting to the villagers. Hyūga Hinata will remain dead to everyone bar a few of us who know the truth. Besides, it also solves the problem of her own reputation as a nukenin around the world. I don't think you'd be able to back her up after you've already done that with me once. And this way, she'll be able to live a relatively calm life when our mission will be completed."

"By the way, I wanted to ask you ... how did you create the fake corpse? It looks so genuine that if I didn't know about your plan beforehand, I would've easily taken it for real," Shikamaru asked, turning to the Uchiha and giving him a quizzical look.

"I've put everyone under a genjutsu."

"Everyone?" Shizune gasped while Kakashi frowned, and the Nara grinned in satisfaction – apparently his assumption had just been confirmed.

"Yeah. Everyone in the village. It's pretty weak and hardly notable, though – it's only purpose is making everyone see Hinata instead of the dead woman from Ame should they take a look at the corpse. I didn't put much chakra into it either, so it will dispel shortly. Probably by the evening, so I suggest you to hurry up with the burial."

Kakashi took a paper from his table, reading a few lines before looking at Sasuke again, suddenly smiling.

"We will to just that, then. There is no point in delaying it any further. I will go to the Hyūga compound right away. I suppose you'll be going back to Ame for now?"

"No. I have to find Hinata's old sensei and have a work with her before I depart. There is something I want to discuss with her and her former teammates." Kakashi nodded, standing up from his working place and putting his hands into the pockets of his pants, heading toward the exit of the room.  
When he was about to open the door, Sasuke suddenly sighed and winced, as if he wasn't sure if he wanted to say something or not, which made his former sensei stop and look over his shoulder questioningly.

"Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

The teen shook his head and smirked, apparently finally coming up with a decision concerning something that had been troubling him for a while.

"Not really, no. I just wanted to say that you're invited, too. And I think I don't mind if your girlfriend comes along as well." Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise while Shizune blushed, gasping and covering her mouth with her palm.

"I … thank you, Sasuke," the Sixth finally uttered, making the teen grin and look away.

"Don't mention it. Just make sure that nobody spoils the evening. We've had enough of trouble lately, so be so kind and do your job accordingly."

He disappeared using _Shunshin no Jutsu_ , leaving everyone in the room in a speechless shock.

* * *

"You are so beautiful, Hinata-sama," Kō uttered quietly, standing near the door to the room that belonged to her and Sasuke and watching as the young woman was fixing her hair that looked pretty different from what her clansman had grown used to see ever since her childhood – she didn't have the forelock anymore, and the regrown straight strands of the black hair already reached her shoulder blades, but were still far from the length he remembered from back when she still had been living in Konoha. She was brushing them now with a silver comb, staring at her reflection in the mirror critically.

"No, I look like a mess. I've spent the last ten hours on sleeping, but I still feel pretty exhausted thanks to you and ... father," she murmured, narrowing the white eyes and putting the comb aside, taking her favorite lipstick from the nightstand instead.

The man's lips curved into a sad smile as he lowered his eyes.

"You will always be the most beautiful woman in the world to me, no matter how you look, Hinata-sama."

She rolled her eyes, glancing at him through the mirror.

"It doesn't sound very convincing after everything you've done to me. Besides, it's not a good idea on your part to say such things to a married woman."

He smirked sheepishly, cocking his head slightly.

"I thought we have agreed to be honest with each other from now on. And that's merely the way I feel, I'm being sincere. I don't need you to return my feelings, Hinata-sama. Just being around you and serving your interests is all I want."

She gave him a long, thoughtful look before going back to working on her makeup.

"That sounds pretty freaky, to be honest. I'd prefer you to stay away from me and to assist Hanabi in Konoha instead. I don't need your help, whereas she certainly does, considering her new position in the clan."

Kō sighed, lowering his eyes shamefully to the floor again.

"I understand, Hinata-sama. I just wanted you to know that I'll always be there for you. Should your husband ever–," he stopped, nearly feeling her burning, murderous glare on his skin.

"Try to meddle into my relationship with Sasuke, and I won't hesitate to kill you the second you do it. Don't even think about saying the nonsense about your feelings in his presence."

He sighed convulsively, as if cringing a little bit under her piercing gaze.

"But I can't help it. I just love you too much, and besides, I told you before that I'm ready to accept the death from your hands if that's what you really want, Hinata-sama," he mumbled, closing the eyes and wincing, apparently expecting her to hit him.

"If you keep irritating her like you're doing it now, it will be my hand that will bestow death upon you, idiot," the familiar voice that Kō hated that much sounded from the door, making Hinata flinch and turn around, rushing towards her husband.

"Sasuke! You're back!" She hugged the man tightly and pecked him on the lips, ignoring Kō's presence completely and looking into the Uchiha's slightly displeased eyes. "How did it go? Is everything fine? How is Hanabi? What–"

"Everything went just splendid, calm down already," he interrupted her jabbering, making the kunoichi blush. "By the way, you look gorgeous. Have you already tried the dress I had brought for you?"

She blushed even more, giggling quietly and looking away sheepishly.

"No … not yet. Speaking of which … I still don't understand what I'm doing it for. Why don't you just tell me what's your mysterious plan about?" She nearly pleaded, fixing the high collar of his light gray shirt.

"You will find out in due time, be patient. It's supposed to be a surprise."

The black haired kunoichi frowned slightly, pouting childishly.

"The last time you prepared a surprise for me, I had to spend the whole week high in the mountains without any food."

He sneered, apparently recalling the event she was talking about and enjoying the nice memories it brought up.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't buy you a dress for something like that, don't you think so?"

She peered at his face for a few seconds before letting the man go, walking back towards the mirror.

"Fine, don't tell me. When are we going to that restaurant, again?"

The Uchiha looked at the old watch on the table, taking the scabbard with the blade off his belt and throwing it into the farthest of the room.

"Nice try, but I still won't tell you where we're going. As for your question – we'll go in an hour or so. I need to have a word with your fanboy here before we go, and besides, I need to change, too. You," he looked into the eyes of Kō who swallowed, apparently bending mentally under Sasuke's gaze. "Follow me. You're not that much of a lost case to hope to get to see her naked in the meantime, are you?" He gripped the man's tunic and pulled him out of the room, closing the door with a kick and walking to the end of the long corridor before stopping next to the closed window, meeting Kō's suddenly indifferent gaze again. "What the hell are you trying to achieve, you moron?"

"The same thing as before. I want her to kill me." The blunt reply made Sasuke grit his teeth angrily, grabbing the man's collar with his only hand and slamming his back into the wall.

"You are a completely hopeless idiot, aren't you?"

"Maybe I am. So what of it?" There was no fear or any emotion for this matter in the white eyes – only the depressive, nearly suicidal indifference.

"She won't kill you."

"How can you be so sure?" His grim smirk was unnerving, but the Uchiha still managed to maintain the control over his wrath.

"I've put her under a very strong genjutsu. No matter how much she wants to kill you, she won't be able to."

Kō narrowed his eyes, giving Sasuke a long, testing look.

"You're lying."

The Uchiha sighed, letting him go and sitting on the windowsill.

"I am. But so are you. Tell me why are you so determined to get killed by her, again? Don't feed me with the bullshit about your unrequited love, I'm not buying it. Tell me the real reason unless you want me to take it out of your tiny brain by force."

There was another long pause before Kō finally opened his mouth.

"You, of all people, should understand why, Sasuke. I want her to become stronger to oppose that Ōtsutsuki clan, and in order for it to happen, I want her to kill me just like you killed Itachi. After all, would you have become this powerful if your brother was still alive?" The Uchiha's eyes widened, and Kō was pretty sure that an outrage would follow inevitably, but instead, Sasuke just laughed at him a second later.

"What made you think that the sole fact that I have killed Itachi made me who I am, fool? Stop being so obsessed with the idea of imitating him, and be thankful to fate that you won't have to live in the same hell he lived in. Killing Itachi was the biggest mistake of my life. There is nothing I regret as much."

Kō's eyes widened in shock as he finally realized what Sasuke was really saying to him.

"Do you mean that …?"

"It's Itachi's word, not mine. He told me back when Kabuto had revived him during the war that his decisions concerning me were always wrong. That he failed miserably in the end. That because of him, I nearly fell into the darkness completely. I nearly destroyed everything I loved and lived for. He wanted me to become a hero, but instead, his actions nearly led me to becoming a monster far worse than Madara was. Do you understand it now?"

The Hyūga's mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally managed to squeeze out a sound, nearly whispering,

"So that's why you were so determined not to let her kill me and her father …?"

"Precisely, genius. Revenge doesn't bring you anywhere but to a lonely death."

Tears streamed down Kō's face while he sobbed, making the Uchiha feel pretty awkward all of sudden – he certainly wasn't used to seeing grown up men crying like girls, even though the man smiling at the same time.

"I … I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm so sorry for everything I've done. You are right ... I was an utter fool. I could never be as good as him."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"You still are a complete idiot. I'm not the one who you should apologize to. Although I suggest you not to come close to her anytime soon. You've annoyed her enough by now, let Hinata have a rest from you and the other ghosts of her past." There was the tiniest threatening note in his voice, and Kō noticed it, nodding quickly in agreement.

"I understand. Of course. You're right. So … should I go back to the village now?"

"Yeah, Kakashi is waiting for you." A dimensional rift opened behind the Hyūga, making him flinch as he felt the incredibly potent chakra tearing the space apart.

"Is this …?"

"Get lost already," Sasuke snapped, making the man nod quickly before turning around and stepping onto the ground of the forest near Konoha's walls with the portal closing behind his back the next second.

Being finally left alone in the empty passage, the Uchiha let out a sigh of relief, brushing his hair tiredly and looking at the door to their room in the opposite end of the corridor.

 _I certainly need a drink … hopefully Naruto hasn't failed his part of the arrangements …_

Half an hour later, when Sasuke already changed into the fresh white shirt and a pair of dark blue pants, he walked into their room again, stopping at the entrance and eyeing Hinata, who still was standing in front of the mirror, up and down.

"You sure haven't wasted that hour …," he mumbled, suppressing the urge to whistle appreciatively.

She flinched as she heard his voice, turning around to face him and blushing terribly, although having enough courage to look Sasuke into the eyes.

The simple yet very stylish long black dress with open shoulders was fitting her figure perfectly, narrowing the curves of her body nicely. The black gloves that were going a bit past her elbows were making her hands look even more elegant than they were, and the makeup the kunoichi had chosen for the evening was a splendid masterstroke to her image, making the young woman look like a real princess, but at the same time without the unnecessary pomposity. There was nothing left in her appearance from that shy and preposterous stuttering girl that had asked him to allow her to tag along to him back in Konoha six months ago … and now Sasuke realized it clearer than ever before that this woman who was standing right in front of him was the Uchiha matriarch. Strong, passionate, wise and incredibly beautiful.

And she belonged to him.

"So … I'm ready. What are we going to do now?" Instead of replying, Sasuke came close to her, touching her chin and kissing the kunoichi on the lips gently, feeling her hands wrap around his neck reflectively as her chest pressed against his own, making the young man realize that they really should stop if he wanted to give her the present he had been preparing the whole day.

Backing off slightly, he smirked, making her giggle as well.

"I need you to close your eyes. Don't use your Byakugan and don't peep."

She raised her eyebrow slightly at his words, albeit doing as he told her nevertheless.

"Just make sure that I don't hit something with my head while we'll be walking like that," she teased him, making the shinobi sneer.

"We won't be walking more than a few steps."

"Oh …?" Another rift opened right in front of them, making Hinata gasp in awe at the feeling while Sasuke wrapped his hand around her waist, stepping forward.

"So … can I open my eyes now?" she asked, looking slightly baffled – the kunoichi was feeling that the place around them has changed, but it also was dead quiet, so she couldn't figure out where they were.

"Yeah. Do so."

"SURPRISE!" The collective chorus of familiar voices made Hinata flinch for the third time that day, nearly jumping up at the totally unexpected explosion of sounds.

They were in Kurenai-sensei's home – the young woman could say that much since he had been to this place dozens of times in the past, so she recognized it instantly. But the shockingly unusual thing there was the amount of people present in the hall.

Naruto was standing next to Orochimaru, Kakashi and Shizune who were sitting at the improvised bar in the corner of the hall – apparently the now smiling cheerfully blond was filling their glasses just when Hinata and Sasuke appeared in the room.

Kurenai was dandling her infant daughter, sitting on the couch along with Kiba and Shino on the opposite sides from her. In the chair right next to them was sitting Shikamaru who apparently was discussing something with Suigetsu who, in turn, was leaning against the wall, glancing from time to time at Karin who was sorting the various dishes on the broad table in the middle of the room.

As they heard everyone greet the newly arrived couple, Chōji and Ino showed up from the kitchen with two plates filled with roasted seafood and meat.

And now every single person was staring at her and Sasuke, looking so glad and happy to see them – even the usually emotionless Yutaka and Jūgo who were sitting on the floor, playing Shogi silently, let out tiny smiles as they raised their heads to looked at the Uchiha family.

"What … what's the meaning of this …?" Hinata nearly whispered, looking around the room with her eyes open as wide as possible.

"You didn't think we would miss the opportunity to celebrate your wedding, did you, Hinata?" Kiba grinned, jumping up from his spot and coming close to her and Sasuke, meeting the onyx black eyes of the man he seemingly had wanted to kill just a few hours ago.

But instead of showing any sign of aggression, he clapped the Uchiha's shoulder in a surprisingly friendly manner, winking at him.

"Quite a show we've pulled earlier in the village, eh?"

Sasuke smirked, hugging Hinata more tightly.

"Yeah. You did a great job. Who could've assumed that you actually have some talent, even if it's mere acting?"

Kiba rolled his eyes, turning around in a dramatic manner.

"Once a douchebag – always a douchebag … I gotta have a drink. Hey, Naruto …!"

Sasuke turned his head to meet Hinata's perplexed eyes, finally letting go of her waist.

"I just thought you should be missing our old friends … and the village, too. It's been a while, after all. That's why I decided to arrange this party for you … and besides, we didn't get to celebrate our wedding, so–," before he could finish the sentence, she jumped up and hugged him tightly, closing the eyes that were filling with the tears of happiness.

"Thank you … thank you, Sasuke! I love you so much …!" she kissed him on the lips passionately, making everyone in the room let out a collective cheerful cry once again.

"Go now. I'm sure you have some things to discuss with your old team," he smiled warmly, and Hinata nodded happily, coming close to Kurenai and Shino and followed by Kiba who was holding two glasses himself – all of them looked very happy despite the chaotic atmosphere in the house, but apparently it didn't matter to them all that much.

After all, they have been missing her quite a lot, too.

Greeting Yutaka and Jūgo with a wave of his hand, Sasuke proceeded to the bar, sitting next to Orochimaru and taking the glass of wine that had been providently prepared for him by Naruto beforehand.

"So, I see everyone's here and everything is okay," he concluded, clinging with the Uzumaki and taking a sip. "Are you sure that we won't attract the unnecessary attention? After all, gathering nearly the whole lineup of Akatsuki in the middle of Konoha for a party is a risky thing to do."

"Don't worry about it. My ANBU have surrounded the place, and the warding seals put by Karin-san are blocking any possible sensory types from prying into this place," Kakashi replied, to which Sasuke gave a satisfied nod.

"Yeah! Not everyone's here yet, though. Sakura-chan told me that she'd be late. She also said that she's going to bring her boyfriend with her! Can you imagine it? I'm dying to see the poor guy!" Naruto laughed loudly, making Shizune frown and Kakashi let out a deep sigh, shaking his head.

"You really should work on your manners if you intend to become the next Hokage, Naruto ..."

"A boyfriend ...?" Sasuke murmured, cocking his eyebrow in slight confusion – even though he had visited Sakura at work just a day ago, somehow the idea of her dating someone never crossed his mind, although it was only natural for her to do it concerning that there wasn't much interesting things to do in the village with him and Naruto spending all their time in Ame.

A loud knock at the door interrupted his thought, making Naruto jump up and storm towards the entrance door.

"There they are!" He pulled the door handle with a triumphant grin, but then his face changed within a single moment – he just stared at whoever was there with his eyes open wide and his jaw looking like it was ready to fall down to the floor any second.

"Wha … what …?" He babbled as the pink haired kunoichi pushed him lightly on the chest, making the blond step aside and let her walk into the room, holding the bandaged hand of …

"Hello everyone! Have Sasuke and Hinata arrived yet?" she asked, looking around and ignoring the complete silence that suddenly fell upon the room.

"Yeah … we have," the Uchiha replied from their corner of the hall, making the kunoichi turn towards him and smile.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun! And where is Hinata …?"

"I'm here." The black haired kunoichi waved at her from the couch, making the medic-nin smile even more widely.

"Oh! You look absolutely magnificent, Hinata! Sasuke, I hope you don't mind if I give our present to your wife? You guys can talk meanwhile – after all, I haven't seen Hinata in ages unlike you!" She let go of the dark haired man, ignoring the shocked stares of Naruto, Ino, Chōji, Kiba, Kakashi and Kurenai.

"Did you know about it?" Hatake whispered into the ear of his assistant who nodded affirmatively, smiling mysteriously.

"Yes. I was there when they got hooked up – after all, we've been working on Gai-san's leg together all along, and he was there pretty often, helping as much as he could ... even though it wasn't very useful."

"I see ..."

Sasuke stared into the vigorous eyes of the taijutsu genius for a few seconds before pulling the stool, offering the man a seat.

"It's been a while, Lee."

"That it has, Sasuke-kun!" The shinobi bowed down in a respectful greeting, sitting down the next second – it was pretty evident that he still felt pretty uncomfortable under the stares of some of his peers present in the room, but then the jinchūriki handed him a glass with red liquid which Lee, surprisingly enough, refused to take.

"Thank you very much, Naruto-kun, but I shouldn't be drinking alcohol. Its usual effect on me isn't something I'm very fond of! Can I have some juice instead?"

"Yes, yes, you can, of course," Naruto's devilish smirk made the Uchiha think that juice was the last thing that Rock Lee would get to taste tonight, but he didn't really care.

For the first time in what seemed to him like ages, Sasuke felt like he was home. And his home was Konoha, once again, just like it had used to be many years ago – back at the times he was already beginning to forget.

"So, I take it you really decided to come back after we're done with all this mess, Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked, sipping the wine from his own glass and looking at his former protegee thoughtfully.

"Yeah."

"Is it because of Hinata?" Shizune asked sheepishly, apparently still unsure how to talk to the former criminal that the Uchiha was to her.

"No," he replied after a short pause, turning his head to look at his wife who was now holding Kurenai's daughter, shaking the girl lightly and making her giggle happily, stretching the small arms in an attempt to reach out for Hinata's face. "It's because I want it."

"I'm glad to hear that, Sasuke," said Kakashi, looking at his former teammate and student in all the seriousness.

"Glad to hear my ass! It's the best news up to date, teme! Cheers!" Naruto exclaimed happily, making the Uchiha smirk.

"Now, everyone, come here and sit at the table like the civil people you are! You'll have the time to get wasted like some pigs later on, boys!" Hanabi showed up from the kitchen, holding a big metal plate with a large cake on it in her hands and putting it on the table.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke noticed the Uchiha symbol printed with dark cherry jam and cream on the upper layer of the cake.

"She has a point," Naruto smirked, getting out of the bar and walking towards the table along with everyone else.

The Uchiha followed his friend, sitting next to his wife and taking her hand into his, feeling as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Now then, I suggest a toast!" The Uzumaki raised his glass, and everyone else did the same, expecting him to say something incredibly long and pompous – after all, Naruto's speeches from the time of the war were still quoted around Konoha from time to time, and he certainly had earned the reputation of a charismatic speaker.

"To the Uchiha clan of Konoha!" He finally yelled, and everyone else repeated his words, making something deep in Sasuke's heart twitch as he felt Hinata's grasp on his hand tightening, making the long forgotten warmth fill every fiber of his being.

No matter what awaited them tomorrow, today he was home.


	25. Brand New World

**Chapter 25. Brand New World**

Temari squinted at the warm gust, letting out a loud tired sigh as she was gazing lazily down upon the dimly lit streets of night Sunagakure.  
Standing there on the top of their office, to everyone else, she looked perfectly fine and calm just as usual, but to someone who knew her, and especially to her younger brother – the Fifth Kazekage, who was standing not far away – it was evident that she felt pretty troubled and conflicted.

Gaara knew for sure what was on his sibling's mind this night, because the very same thing had been bothering him for the last two months without pause, so her current sleepless state was hardly surprising.

The Kazekage himself certainly shared her concerns, if not more.

It had been a little more than three years since the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War. And to the entire ninja world, things were going relatively smoothly... well, all in all. Aside from a few artificially created local conflicts, no significant wars had happened ever since that day, but it wasn't just because everyone decided to live peacefully all of sudden, obviously – there was a very good reason to it.  
In fact, this very reason was what had caused the higher echelons of Sunagakure spend countless sleepless nights in thinking and attempting to come up with a solution for the situation they found themselves in – and this night was no exception.

Needless to say they failed miserably at that.

All of sudden, they found themselves being hostages. The hostages held in the grasp of the supreme power which, ironically enough, had saved them all from the Infinite Tsukuyomi in the past.

And while it hadn't been any surprising for Gaara to find out that Uchiha Sasuke was plotting something concerning the entire ninja world once again, what really had made Gaara's hopes and delusions crumble all at once was the realization of the simple fact.

Their world had been conquered by the most powerful and influential people alive without anyone noticing how and when exactly it had happened.

For many centuries, there were always two or more opposing major powers in the world of ninja, no matter what happened, and they were always relatively equalized by the nine tailed beasts. The nearest to their age long term confrontation that he could remember was the ancient unending war between Senju and Uchiha, which had concluded with the formation of the grand system that was still in place – the system of Hidden Villages.

Then there was the legendary feud between Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, which at the time had been making the entire world tremble in fear as everyone was waiting for its outcome.

After that, the first generation of Akatsuki had been formed, which in the end had led them to the Fourth Great Ninja War, the most global scaled and destructive conflict the history of ninja had ever known.

Speaking frankly and sincerely, deep inside, Gaara expected and maybe even hoped for Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto to become the next Madara and Hashirama. After all, the Kazekage was young, of course, but he was no fool – and he had realized it very quickly after becoming the leader of his village that ninja needed something to unite against. And the Uchiha was fitting for that role just perfectly considering the amount of crimes he had already committed by that moment.

Besides, without a doubt, Uzumaki Naruto would've been able to become the figure that would unite the world against this new threat in the face of his former friend.

That's how every Kage had secretly presumed it would've gone.

But instead, something completely unexpected had happened. Something that had made them belatedly realize how miscalculated their presumptions really were.

Instead of becoming the threat their world needed desperately in order to prolong the fragile peace, Uchiha Sasuke had sided with Konoha. Moreover, his influence had grown very wide in no time, and in a mere year after the war it had already become fairly obvious that both him and Naruto had obtained full control over Konohagakure.

In other words, the two shinobi who possessed the power to destroy anyone and anything that would stand on their way... had joined together. And the events that took part in Amegakure shortly after the war's end had shown it clearly that they had sided for one single purpose – assuring Konoha's dominance over all the other countries.

It went exactly according to the Uchiha's plan, of that Gaara was absolutely sure. Only someone like him could've come up with something as twisted – this way, the two of them, Naruto and Sasuke, were controlling the leaders of every single country in the world, and aside from said leaders and their entourages, everyone was oblivious to the reality, thinking that everything was back to the former pre-war state.

Except nowadays every single conflict, every single mission, nearly every single death was planned. Planned by the certain group of people that had basically obtained the monopoly on wars.

Gaara lowered his head as the wind was blowing his hair and readjusted on his finger the simple silver ring with a yellow signet, the kanji on which meant 'Wind'.

He was now a member of this very group. He was responsible, too.

But there hardly was a better way... was there?

He clenched his teeth, taking a step closer to Temari who, as it seemed, was too lost in her thought to notice him.

No. Naruto was right to trust the Uchiha on this plan.

This way, they were able to control everything. To narrow the casualties down to minimum. To somehow balance out the shaky economics of every country, and thus to prevent the necessity of children dying early in various pointless bloodsheds like it had always been happening in the past.

"He should be here soon... I don't recall him ever being late," the blonde woman muttered, crossing the arms on her chest and frowning, but not looking at her brother.

"That is true. Something must have happened. Do not worry about it, though. If that is the case, Naruto will come after us shortly," the third person added from the left of them, and Temari flinched as her head snapped towards the familiar soft voice that was a bit subdued by the mask the black haired woman always wore in their presence.

It looked a bit frightening, even for Gaara's usually indifferent attitude, but what was even more weird... it had no single hole in it – not even for the eyes. Basically, it was a simple black metal mask that covered the entire face of the young kunoichi who, just like the Kazekage now, was a member of Akatsuki.

The most mysterious member at that.

Aside from the mask, she was wearing a monotone black coat with the Uchiha crest on its back, along with dark blue tight pants and a pair of typical ninja sandals. Nothing that could draw anyone's attention – the Akatsuki had decided that it was better not to wear any uniform in order to hide their true allegiance, yet remaining able to recognize each others through the rings.

And this particular kunoichi was especially hideous.

Always calling her in accordance with the kanji on her own ring – 'Byaku', which meant 'white' – they didn't even know her real name. The only piece of information concerning her identity that Naruto had spilled once before was that she was an Uchiha – Sasuke's wife, to be precise, but that was nearly all they knew about her.

Whatever ability she possessed, be it a Sharingan or some variation of Sennin Mode, evidently it allowed her to either see or sense everything around her despite the mask, and although she was now facing the direction opposite to them, somehow the Kazekage was sure that her eyes were set on him in that particular second.

"Well, if you say so...," Temari mumbled perplexedly, not daring to sound rude with her around, albeit Gaara knew for sure how much his sister disliked this woman.

The female Akatsuki member shrugged, and something he couldn't quite explain made the red haired man think that she smiled under the mask.

"That's how they work, always covering each other's back." Gaara frowned at the weird comment – it was too unusual for her to be this chatty, if it was even a right word to use in this case.

"You seem to know a lot about them...," he paused, deciding not to finish the sentence as they heard her chuckle under the mask.

"I grew up watching both of them from the distance, so you are right, I know them well," she replied simply, surprising the siblings with an unexpected revelation.

"Is that so...? What's your home village, then?" asked Temari, glaring at the kunoichi who turned her head slightly, as if to look at the blonde over her shoulder.

"That is a silly question, Temari-san."

Gaara sighed, shaking his head as his sister gritter her teeth in apparent anger.

The question was indeed silly – why would she tell them the truth anyway if she didn't even feel like telling them her name? Besides, they weren't her friends or even her comrades – Gaara was her accomplice in Akatsuki, but that didn't really mean anything when it came to personal relationships.  
"As you well know, I belong to the Uchiha clan. Naturally my home village is Konohagakure," came the even more unexpected reply, making both the Sand's ninja gasp in surprise.

Temari raised her eyebrow skeptically, while Gaara let out a quiet sigh of relief.

At least she was humane, given that she clearly had a sense of humor. That was already something. She wasn't just a merciless and mindless slayer like many others, including Gaara himself, had imagined her to be.

"That much is obvious, of course. I must say, it's a pleasure interacting with you in a non formal way for once," he responded indifferently, which made the entire sentence sound a bit sarcastic, but Gaara didn't realize that – after all, it was his usual manner of speech.

"Is it?" She chuckled again, raising up and finally turning towards the two of them. "And here I thought it was anything but pleasure, considering how carefully everyone in your village avoids interacting with me."

She sure caught them off guard with this blunt and impolite statement, which was true, of course. Neither of the Sand Siblings knew what to say to that, but before they could come up with a response, she added,

"Not that it's not understandable, though. We, Uchiha, have quite some reputation."

The corners of Gaara's lips raised a little bit.

"I don't think that is the exact reason to our attitude. The aura of secrecy that surrounds your clan and you, in particular, most likely is."

She hemmed.

"Secrecy...? Are you interested in something in particular?"

Temari's eyes widened, while Gaara's face remained as impassive.

"Just like that?" asked the blonde.

The masked woman shrugged again.

"Why not? Try it."

"How old are you?" Temari asked immediately, making Gaara glance at her, surprised by the strange question. Why did it, of all the other things, matter to her at all...?

"I'm a few years younger than you, Temari-san." The Sand's kunoichi frowned, apparently not understanding how could she be so sure. "I've seen your page in the bingo book," the Uchiha added, answering the silent question.

"How did you manage to survive the massacre?" asked the Kazekage then, making the kunoichi turn her head slightly in his direction as if to face him.

"I was away at the time. After that, I have been raised in complete oblivion for a few years. For the sake of my own safety, everyone hid it from me... who I really am," Gaara didn't show any visible reaction, but it didn't miss his ear how her voice changed for a second at the end of the phrase. Apparently this particular topic was sensitive for her, so it was better not to push further.

"Has anybody in Konoha ever seen your face, or you wear the mask at home for some reason, too?" The leader of Sunagakure was about to glare at his sister – that certainly sounded offensive on her part.

But apparently the Uchiha didn't care – in fact, she let out something that sounded like a quiet giggle, to his surprise.

"Many people have. In fact, even you have seen my face, Temari-san. You just don't remember me. I, however, do remember you from the times when you visited Konoha."

"Why exactly do you hide your face and name?" finally asked Gaara, not really counting on a sincere answer.

She sighed, lowering her head.

"Because Sasuke told me to. I'm sorry, I can't tell you the exact reason. It is about the safety of our clan. There are only a few survivors, as you certainly know, and he values my life way too much to let the information about my identity and my past spread."

"A careful husband, huh?" Temari turned away, smirking – apparently Gaara wasn't the only one who hadn't really expected their shady companion to be so polite and open.

The masked kunoichi turned away again,

"He is a very responsible man, Temari-san. He never leaves any chances for his enemies."

Gaara frowned thoughtfully, watching as the woman stepped back to the edge of the floor and leaned against the metal fencing, lowering her head down as if to look at the village.

Sasuke's enemies... but whom did he consider his enemies nowadays? That was a good question.

The atmosphere around them changed the same second the blond man appeared on the roof next to Byaku, slipping off the edge the and nearly falling down the next moment, yelping and waving his hands awkwardly as he tried to maintain the balance and thus making Temari slap her face, shaking her head.

"You just never change, do you...?" she mumbled while Uzumaki Naruto grinned, finally jumping over the fence and nodding appreciatively to the Uchiha who had caught the collar of his black shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, helping the man not to fall down in the final second, although it was most certainly unnecessary knowing his capabilities.

"Thanks! And hey there, Gaara, Temari! Ugh...," he groaned in irritation, wiping the dust off the back of his orange pants and looking at the mask quizzically. "Is it really necessary? Who the hell cares at this point?"

She spread her hands in resignation.

"Apparently Sasuke does."

The Uzumaki rolled his eyes.

"Blah, blah, blah... they will find out, eventually. You could at least just use a bandage to cover the eyes, y'know."

"The later, the better. I don't mind it anyway."

"Even knowing that they probably think that your face is ugly and scarred or something like that? Or maybe Sasuke just wants your beauty all for his eyes alone? That possessive bastard!"

She chuckled, shrugging indifferently once again.

"Why are you so concerned with this anyway? And besides, if I were you, I certainly would rather put a mask on right now."

"Huh?" Naruto's gave her a baffled look. "What do you mean?"

"Probably the lipstick on your right cheek, genius."

The Uzumaki gasped, and this time even Gaara couldn't hold back a smirk.

"Oh... ugh! Why do I always end up being the embarrassed one?!" he groaned, wiping the eloquent mark off his face.

Byaku giggled.

"Probably because both of you are careless knuckleheads. You are spoiling her with your manners, do you know that...? And what if you came to the meeting like that?" she paused, enjoying Naruto's scowl. "But I guess it is inevitable, knowing you. Anyway... where is Sasuke? He promised to come after us."

"Oh, that... well, he had to go somewhere, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell anyone just because I can sense where his chakra is located... and don't make this face, I can sense your emotions as well, y'know!" He laughed awkwardly, scratching his nape as she crossed her arms on her chest.

"Fine, we can talk about it later. You should make haste now, we are being late. Is everybody else there yet?"

"Nah. Kakashi-sensei will be late, but that's Kakashi-sensei for you. And Sasuke, well... he probably won't come over tonight. But you're right, we'll discuss it afterward. Hey, Gaara! Come here, I'll teleport us to the Tower!"

The red haired shinobi met Temari's worried look before sighing, striding towards the jinchūriki and suppressing a rare happy smile.

No matter how much time passed, no matter how much all of them changed, some things still remained the same.

They were still friends.

* * *

The tall man with long black hair that reached his shoulder blades and covered one side of his face completely was slowly walking down the relatively quiet main street of Konohagakure, carefully ignoring the multiple greets and cheers coming from here and there. In spite of the fact that it was a deep night in the village right now, those people who were still outside recognized him and wanted to show their gratitude to him in every possible way.

After all, Uchiha Sasuke was the reason to their well being, along with Uzumaki Naruto.

And not that Sasuke minded it in general, no. In fact, he was pretty much satisfied with the popularity he had managed to earn back throughout the last few years – after all, this way his renascent clan wouldn't be molested and despised as it had been until the massacre.

But right now, their attention certainly was annoying to him. His mood was already pretty bad as it was, considering the fact that he had spent the previous day on wandering around another dimension, and much to his displease, it turned to be completely futile – he hadn't found what he had been looking for.

Not to mention that he hadn't seen his wife in weeks ever since she had been sent to Sunagakure to watch the Kazekage and their village council, and that was also pretty... irritating, to say the least. He wasn't allowed to just teleport into her room over there whenever he wanted – she had also been watched, of that he had no doubt, and he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to either of them.

After all, nobody aside from the Kazekage and his siblings knew the full truth about Akatsuki.

"Sasuke-sama, can I please–"

"Sorry, I'm busy right now. Later," he decided not to look into the girl's disappointed eyes, passing by the already closed grocery store and coming to the entrance of a small, rather unattractive caff.

Stepping inside, he spotted the person he was looking for in an instant – she was sitting near the window in the farthest corner of the relatively small room, waiting for him, although for a stranger it would look as if she was just getting wasted as usual. There were little to no visitors aside from them at the time, and apparently the manager decided to take a nap, which was understandable, so Sasuke decided not to waste any more precious time and came close to the older woman's table, sitting down and taking a sealed scroll out of a pocket of his cloak.

"Here. I haven't managed to find the second one, though. Apparently it's hidden in a different dimension, and I don't have any chakra left to keep jumping between them. I need some rest."

Tsunade took a sip out of her cup, undoing the seal on the scroll and looking at its contents curiously as she unrolled it.

"Uh huh... as we expected, I can't read any of these. Can you...?"

"No. Not even the Rinnegan is working on this one. The writings are probably too ancient, so I suppose it will take time to decipher them."

The former Hokage nodded thoughtfully, hiding the scroll under under her green-grass haori and looking around just to make sure that nobody was watching them.

"Don't worry, I've put everyone within a mile radius under a genjutsu. Not even the Hyūga are interested in what's going on here right now."

The Senju grinned, shaking her head and taking another sip.

"Sneaky bastard. Do you want some?" She nodded at the bottle, to which Sasuke shook his head.

"No. I still have some things to do this night."

"I thought you were too tired to use your space-time ninjutsu again, weren't you? You need some rest, brat. It doesn't take to have a Sharingan to see that you are way too stressed and exhausted."

The Uchiha looked away, not bothering to take anything from the table despite the fact that he hadn't eaten for two days straight by that moment.

"It's... strange. If she had a backup plan for her return, that means that she certainly had known it beforehand that we would defeat her. Knowing how arrogant she was, she wouldn't have bothered with that otherwise. But how is this possible...? How could she know?" he muttered, narrowing his eyes at the confusing conclusion.

"Are you asking me? You are the smart ass here, go figure it out," Tsunade barked, taking a few more sips of the burning liquid.

But Sasuke ignored her comment, keeping thinking aloud,

"She also seemed to have recognized both me and Naruto, now that I think about it... is it possible that she can foresee the future?"

"Nah, brat, that's unlikely. Think about it this way: if she was a prophet and if she knew for sure that you and Naruto would seal her anyway, why even bother fighting you guys? That's illogical, and this Kaguya person doesn't make the impression of being an idiot," the blonde replied, to which Sasuke nodded slowly.

"That's also true. However, it doesn't make any sense. Black Zetsu told us that he had been trying to revive her for centuries... his attempts always failed until recently. And to think that by some lucky coincidence she has been revived precisely during our age, when the potential vessel for her backup plan was born... it makes absolutely no sense to me. She could've just waited for a few more years to take the control over Hinata's body, just like she intends to do now, apparently. But she allowed Zetsu to proceed with their primary plan nonetheless... damn it, this is killing my brain," he groaned, gripping his head tightly and leaning against the back of the cheap chair.

Tsunade sighed, propping her chin in her hand and giving the man a pitiful look.

"You're overworking yourself, brat. Go and take some rest. We'll figure it out, eventually. This scroll you have brought will also probably help us a lot. There is no rush."

"You don't understand–"

"Oh, shut up, I understand you very well, Uchiha. You are concerned with the life of your wife, and that's perfectly fine, but–"

"No, you don't! It's not about just her life!" he interrupted her, raising his voice a bit which made the Senju frown. "It's about this entire world! Me and Naruto, we don't have the necessary power to do it again. Should Kaguya be revived for the second time, we won't be able to seal her away anymore. We can't allow this to happen, no matter the cost!"

She raised her thin eyebrow skeptically and took another sip.

"Oh, really? Then kill her, and the problem will be solved."

Sasuke gasped and narrowed his eyes, glaring at the woman dangerously.

"What did you just say?" He growled, activating his Sharingan.

"You heard me. Finish her off, and it will become impossible for Kaguya to revive. You said 'no matter the cost', didn't you?" She smirked, meeting his nearly literally incinerating gaze calmly. "What is it? Not as easy as it used to be anymore, huh? So you've changed for real, after all. That's a relief."

He kept glaring at her for a few more seconds before snorting and looking away.

"Whatever... killing her is not an option. I will not allow anyone or anything to hurt her. Nothing bad shall happen to her."

"Then stop being all talk and do something productive. For instance, take a drink and go have some rest." She pushed the second cup towards him, which the Uchiha finally grabbed reluctantly.

"What's with the recent samples?" he asked, feeling as the warming liquid streamed down his throat, pushing the stress and frustration away for the first time in weeks.

"They are all good. At this rate, her DNA will change insignificantly during the next decade, which makes it safe to assume that her body won't be suited to withstand significant amounts of potent chakra and thus to becoming Kaguya's vessel in the next hundred years at least, unless a catalyst will be applied."

"A catalyst...?"

Tsunade nodded, and her expression finally changed to a more serious one.

"Anything that will give her chakra and body another significant boost. For example, some of the granddad's cells. Or a more powerful dōjutsu. Or a bijū at that. Although, considering that we've destroyed nearly every sample of said cells, and you obviously are not dumb enough to give your left eye away, the only thing you need to be careful of is not letting her become a jinchūriki."

"That's not going to happen. Anything else?"

"Yeah." She put the cup back onto the table, crossing her hands in front of her face. "Are you planning on impregnating her anytime soon?"

Sasuke's eyebrows raised in surprise as he chocked, beginning to cough.

"What... what kind of question is that...?"

The woman sighed, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"It's a normal question, brat. You've been married for three years by now. Naturally that is something you would want to do, considering that you intend to revive your clan and all that."

He wiped his chin, trying to cover his blush awkwardly at the same time – the reaction had been caused not by the touchy topic, but rather by his own embarrassing reaction to her question that certainly had taken him off guard.

"No. We're not planning that anytime soon," he finally said. "Why?"

"Because your child can become a catalyst, too. So here is my advise: if you want a happy family without risking the world's existence, don't even think about having children with her until you find a way to counter Kaguya's plan. Got it?"

He nodded, frowning at her words.

Not that they were in rush when it came this matter, but still... knowing that his wife bearing his child could actually become a cause for the world's end wasn't any pleasant to say the least.

"Fine. I'll be going now. Thanks for the drink."

"No problem, brat. You needed it," she smirked, becoming serious once again a second later. "Take care."

"Yeah." He raised up from the table, walking quickly to the exit.

Breathing the refreshing air of the night street, Sasuke stood there for a few more seconds, looking around aimlessly has he was sorting the new information out.

He needed to keep Hinata safe no matter the cost. And despite the likelihood of her receiving a catalyst seemed to be pretty low, it wasn't nonexistent, of that he was sure.

First of all, he would need to ask Naruto or the Kyūbi to contact the other tailed beasts and to ask them to stay the hell away from Hinata. And while he had no doubt that she wouldn't willingly become a host for a bijū, there had been the precedents of people becoming the hosts against their will.  
And should Toneri come to their world again, he would be able to put the beasts under his control, of that Sasuke was fairly sure.

In other words, the bijū needed to be warned about him, too.

Other than that... Tsunade basically told him that she would care about the remaining First Hokage's cells. And the only things that possessed the threat to them was...

His own left eye.

But the probability of Hinata stealing his Rinnegan for whatever impossible reason she would need it was below zero, of that he was also sure.

The man sighed, finally striding forward with his hands in his pockets.

Did it mean that they were relatively safe for now? So long as Hinata used the seal of contraception, they probably were. Yet still, the overall amount of things that could potentially go wrong made him feel pretty frustrated and worried.

But then again, maybe he really just needed to rest and to finally see his wife...

"Hey, you there." The Uchiha stopped suddenly, making the young woman that was walking towards him stop as well, raising her head and staring at him. Her eyes widened – firstly in fear, and then apparently she recognized him.

"I... I... Sasuke-sama...!"

"Be quiet." He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Do you happen to know if there is a flower shop that is still open this late?"

Maybe he had enough chakra for opening just one more rift, after all.

* * *

"Damn it, everyone else is already here! Just what the hell is wrong with your Hokage, Naruto?" Darui drawled, looking lazily at the ceiling of the hall and playing with the ring on his finger, the kanji on which meant 'Cloud'.

Hinata focused her Byakugan under her mask on the Uzumaki, doing so rather reflexively than on purpose, for her thoughts were lying completely elsewhere at the moment.

"Eh, sorry, everyone... something must've happened, you see..."

"Kindly stop complaining, Raikage-dono. We're all well aware of the Hokage's habits," Mei Terumi giggled, covering her mouth with her palm and leaning against the back of her chair. "Besides, Uchiha Sasuke isn't here yet, either."

"He will not come," Hinata said quietly from her spot at the big round table, making everyone else look at her questioningly. "Sasuke is handling an emergency situation somewhere else right now."

"Huh? An emergency?" asked Karin, frowning and then smirking. "Is there something wrong in Hidan's village again?"

"Oh, shut up, bitch. My village is just fine. You should watch your own den!" the immortal man growled from his spot, making Karin sneer. Annoying Hidan had become a habit among the Akatsuki members lately.

"Why, Kusagakure is doing well, thank you, sweetheart," the Uzumaki woman replied, making Hidan grit his teeth in anger.

"Hopefully you're doing better than you did in your apartment back in Oto, Karin..."

"Oh, shut up, Suigetsu...!" Her face changed from a mocking one to enraged within just a second at his comment.

"Anyway, maybe we should start without the Hokage? It's not like we have much to discuss anyway," Kurotsuchi from Iwagakure mumbled, appearing notably annoyed, which was understandable to the others – Ōnoki still hasn't passed the tittle of Tsuchikage down to her, and technically the young woman couldn't represent her village in Akatsuki yet as Ōnoki himself wasn't aware of their conspiracy, and her role in it had to be hidden from the old man for the obvious reasons.

"Yeah, I guess–"

"Now then, sorry, everyone," the silver haired masked man appeared out of nowhere as the space at his spot twisted into a swirl, making him land right into his own chair which in turn made a few of the present people gasp in surprise. "I was preventing a small civil war in our country when I remembered about this meeting."

"About damn time, Hokage," Darui smirked, finally taking a more collected pose with a more serious expression.

"Hokage-dono," Gaara nodded in a greeting, to which Kakashi nodded as well.

"What happened, Kakashi-kun?" Orochimaru asked curiously, eyeing the younger man.

"Nothing significant, just some domestic problems concerning our daimyo. Anyway... so, where was I... oh, right. Kurotsuchi-san ... how are the things in your village going?"

"No significant changes as of now. I'm actively working on it."

"Do you need some kind of intervention?" asked Jun, who was currently the formal leader of Amegakure. "I'm sure we could arrange that without breaking the pact."

The kunoichi shook her head.

"Nah, I don't think that's necessary. The old man is just being stubborn, but I'll get under his skin."

"Yeah, sure, we all know the way you bitches do that to us men," Hidan let out an evil sneer, making Kurotsuchi smile at him politely.

"Sorry, but what you, of all people, can know about _these_ ways?"

Most of the others smirked or even laughed at her comment while Hidan himself reddened, which was rare for him, shutting up and turning away without continuing the fight for once.

"In either case, there is no rush for now. We'll keep avoiding Iwagakure while forming and executing our plans until you take your place as the next Tsuchikage. I still want you to participate in our meetings in order to be informed, naturally," she nodded, and then Kakashi took a few scrolls and papers out of the seal on his sleeve. "As for our current agenda, the main issue we're going to face is the Land of Iron."

"So the samurai refused to cooperate, huh...? Should've known that, they are very principled people," Orochimaru grinned, clearly excited for the upcoming propositions concerning their plan.

"Why not just send Naruto in there? His clones have worked perfectly in every single operation so far, and this way, the casualties are minimized," uttered Yutaka who was sitting next to Karin with his usual blank face.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple this time," Kakashi sighed, putting aside the scroll he was holding. "Pretty much like Orochimaru-san said, samurai are very principled people, nearly bigoted at that. It would've worked just fine if not for one problem – every single men and most of women in their country are like that. They won't go down without a fight, and no words will work on them unless we find a political solution, preferably completely peaceful. Which, in turn, is hardly possible without setting another Great War in motion before we settle things in the remaining hidden villages, especially in Iwagakure."

"In other words, the Land of Iron should be the last to handle. But what exactly is the problem here, Hokage-dono? From what we know, there is no rush," Mei reasoned, giving Hatake an estimating gaze.

"It's not that simple! They have gathered three bijū!" Naruto exclaimed, making nearly everyone in the room, including Mei, gasp in shock.

"But... isn't that against the Pact...?" Gaara muttered as his face darkened notably at the news.

"No, it's not," replied Kakashi. "According to Naruto's intel, the beasts came over their territory willingly. Or, well, not exactly... they got baited on purpose after Sanbi came there accidentally and their connection with him was severed."

"Does it mean that... that they have three jinchūriki now?!"

"Precisely," Hatake nodded, and Hinata moved her eyes to Kurotsuchi who now looked pretty scared.

"In other words, our only options are either causing a bloodshed, followed by the elimination of the whole country... or another Great War in the upcoming years?" asked the female Uchiha, making the Hokage sigh sadly.

"Which is why we need to come up with a plan to solve this dilemma as soon as possible. And fortunately enough, I have an idea."

"What is it?" asked Darui, looking rather puzzled than scared by the new information.

"We are going to arrange another Gokage Summit in the Land of Iron soon, and there, we will all sign a new pact. No... an additional paragraph to the existing one, given that the Pact is not to be changed in any way other than breaking it completely according to what's written in it."

Hinata closed her eyes, feeling the increasing pulsing pain in her temple.

Not only the last few weeks she spent in Sunagakure were an utterly boring hell for her, but she also had to take part in this stupid act where everyone thought that they actually had a vote on the decisions the organization made...

Disgusting.

And on top of that, Sasuke wasn't there...

"We are going to sign the agreement according to which every single country is to accept the supreme command of Gokage should another threat to the world like Madara and Jūbi appear once again. Any insubordination in this case is to be punished lethally. Considering how militarized everything about their culture and tradition is, their leaders will take the bait and sign it as well, without a doubt."

Darui narrowed his eyes and grinned.

"Oh? And who is going to be Madara this time? Has the Uchiha finally become bored and wants to play a big shot again?"

Both Naruto and Hinata nearly jumped up from their seats simultaneously, clenching their fists and making the young Raikage raise his hands apologetically.

"Woah, woah, sorry, okay? Jeez, you people are so hot headed, it was just a joke, for fuck's sake," he mumbled, while Kakashi just sighed tiredly again, shaking his head.

"Please sit back, Byaku, Naruto. And no, Raikage-dono. Sasuke is needed elsewhere for now. No, actually, we're expecting an outer enemy to come to our world soon enough. According to our intel, it can happen any moment now, although it's only possible during a lunar eclipse, and we're not sure when exactly they are going to strike."

Everyone went silent for a few second while Hinata's heart began to beat faster.

The Sixth was talking about Toneri and the rest of Ōtsutsuki, that much was pretty clear. But what made him so sure that they would pose a threat to their world? After all, from what they knew, Toneri was only after her alone. Or maybe...

Her eyes widened under the mask at the shocking realization.

What if the Sixth decided to provoke Toneri and to use him for their goals?

Trying to calm herself down and ignoring what the others were saying, the Uchiha was rapidly thinking on the multiple possibilities that were swirling in her head right now.

First of all, it was very smart, she had to admit. Whatever power Toneri and his clan possessed – and it was probably immense judging by the two Ōtsutsuki she personally knew – this way, Kakashi was assuring the highest possible chances for them to withstand the upcoming confrontation. And aside from that, a large scaled battle would distract Toneri from looking for her, earning them the advantage of time...

Moreover, it would allow them to solve both of their biggest problems once and for all. Uniting the world for good, and preventing Kaguya's return...

No, their Hokage wasn't just smart. He was a genius strategist, that's for sure.

Yet still...

Deep inside, Hinata was afraid to think what was going to happen when Toneri would arrive. She just wanted it all to to end... she wanted a peaceful life with her husband and her clan. She wanted to come back to her home village.

To become a mother...

But instead, she had to keep fighting. To keep acting before everyone including herself, making it seem like she was unbreakable... a perfect kunoichi, one of the strongest in the world.

And now she couldn't even see Sasuke...

The Uchiha nearly groaned in frustration, suppressing her outburst in the last moment - but evidently the others were too absorbed by the discussion that was going on, so they probably wouldn't notice it anyway.

Sometimes Hinata just hated her life.

No, of course, she realized that she couldn't really complain. Comparing to how she had been living until she met Sasuke, it was like comparing hell to paradise. And while they were still allowed to live, travel and do missions together, it was perfectly fine. No, more than just fine – she loved that, much like she loved everything about her husband himself.  
But without him... the world was losing its colors rapidly. And she was starting to feel rather depressed pretty quickly.

And what made it all even worse, she knew for a fact that Sasuke felt the same way. That he suffered because of this situation, too. That he missed her just like she missed him.

To some other woman, the idea of someone like Sasuke craving to see her this much would probably be flattering and pleasant. But to Hinata, it wasn't. She hated the idea of her beloved one feeling bad, no matter what was the reason to it. Especially when she could relate to the feeling herself.

And on top of that, she had been waiting for this day in the same way she had used to wait for her birthdays back in her childhood. But it turned out that she wouldn't see Sasuke anytime soon, after all...

"Byaku, what do you think? Can you make it?" Kakashi turned to her, making the young woman snap out of her depressing thoughts, raising her head up and, for the first time ever, being grateful to her mask – fortunately it was hiding her burning red face right now, because she had literally no idea what he was asking her about.

"Damn it, Kakashi-sen... I mean, Hokage-sama! Of course she can, what kind of question is that?"

"Naruto, I'm not asking you," the Sixth interrupted his former student, making him grimace. "So, Byaku. Can you accompany Sasuke's group in this mission?"

Her heart skipped a beat.

"I... of course, I can do that," she replied cautiously, not really caring about the details of the mission.

"Very well, then," Kakashi clapped his hands, nodding approvingly. "We'll set this plan in motion in a week. For now, Naruto will teleport all of you back to your previous assignments. Thank you for coming, the meeting is over."

"Fine by me," Darui mumbled, raising up from his spot, and so did everyone else.

Feeling her heart racing insanely, Hinata approached one of the clones Naruto had just created in order to use his Flying Thunder God jutsu on the leaders of the villages, gripping his hand and pulling the blond away from the others.

"Naruto, I–"

"Yeah, I have noticed that you spaced out for a second. You haven't heard about the details of the mission, have ya?" he asked quietly, giving her an empathic look. Sometimes she was beginning to forget that he could feel people's emotions. What a nice ability...

"No," she sighed, lowering her head in shame.

The blond smirked, whispering,

"Don't worry, it's all good for ya. Unless you mind me and a bunch of other idiots taking part in that mission Sasuke is going to lead."

"I... no, I don't really mind it," she smiled under the mask, and the Uzumaki smiled in return, tapping her shoulder reassuringly. "But what kind of mission is that...?"

"Oi, Naruto! Get your ass over here and teleport us back to Kusa! I need to take a shower after talking to Suigetsu, I'm feeling dirty!" Karin yelled, waving to him and making Hinata realize that she had actually been talking to the real jinchūriki all this time, and not to a shadow clone.

"Oh? Careful, Karin, your boyfriend might get jelly at such confession. But I can feel ya, many girls feel the need for a shower when I'm around," the white haired swordsman grinned, while Yutaka, who was now holding Karin's hand, remained calm as usual, not even caring to react – after all, such clashes between Suigetsu and Karin were something everybody in Akatsuki grew accustomed to.

His girlfriend, on the other hand...

"Okay, listen, I gotta go before they kill each other. Sasuke will tell you everything, okay? See ya," Naruto winked at Hinata, making her nod perplexedly as he stormed towards his own and Sasuke's cousins.

Turning around, Hinata walked slowly towards the familiar stairs of the Tower that had become their home throughout the previous years, thinking about everything she had found out this night.  
She hasn't been to their room in weeks, and for some reason, she didn't even want to enter it, knowing that Sasuke wasn't there anyway. But on the other hand, she felt so tired after this incredibly long day... Hinata needed to have some rest, and sleeping outside her bed just because she was feeling depressed would be beyond ridiculous.  
She wasn't a teenager anymore, after all...

Opening the door to their room that had become pretty comfy during the years they had spent living here, the Uchiha took the mask off, finally deactivating the Byakugan and enjoying the freedom as she was unbuttoning her coat, tossing it aside as well. She would have the time to put it in its place in the morning anyway...

Yawning soundly, the kunoichi took the dark blue top off as well, standing there next to the mirror in her underwear only when she felt the two strong hands grip her from behind, hugging tightly and making the young woman yelp in surprise.

But she recognized his smell instantly, of course.

"Sasuke...!" She turned around, only to get pressed against the wall the next second as Sasuke kissed her on the lips passionately, slowly moving to her neck and making his wife gasp intermittently as she hugged his neck.

"I missed you so much," he whispered against her lips, pressing his forehead against her own and looking into her white eyes.

"Tell me about it," she smiled, kissing him back. "Why didn't you come after us? What happened?"

"Nothing serious. I just wanted to buy you these, but all the stores were already closed," he pointed with a nod of his head at the humble bouquet of red roses that was floating midair next to them.

Hinata sneered, shaking her head and kissing him again.

"You'll have to tell me about it, you know. I won't give up until you do."

"I know. And I will tell you, but later. We have more important things to do right now." He raised her up in the air with his hands, making the kunoichi let out a squeal of delight, and rushed towards their bed.


	26. Minutes to Midnight

**Chapter 26. Minutes to Midnight**

"Hm... try adding more of your chakra into the cloak. From what it looks, it lacks a very small amount of power to be able to work as intended."

"But it will be visible if I add more!"

"Then do something about it. It's your technique, after all, not mine. I'm merely attaching the seals here, my job is simple. Or... are you trying to tell me that you're already giving up? Now that we are so close..." The annoying smirk irritated him to no end, just like it always did.

"I never give up...!"

"Then stop being a sissy and prove it. Sasuke would've done it by now without any complains."

"Oh, shut up, you freak! Sasuke is nowhere close to my level when it comes to this stuff...!"

"You are all talk, brat. Shut up and enforce the cloak with your chakra remaining hidden. Do it now or I'm done for today, and your glorious idea will be considered worthless, just like it happens with most of your ideas."

"Ugh...!" Naruto scowled at Orochimaru, concentrating all of his willpower to reach the best level of chakra control he could in order to hide the boiling red chakra that had appeared around the ring on the sannin's hand a second before as the jinchūriki channeled more chakra into it.

"It's..." Orochimaru's yellow eyes narrowed suspiciously as the cloak disappeared. He clenched his pale fist, giving it a long, searching look.

"Oh, screw it... if it doesn't work now, I'm done with this shit!" The Uzumaki groaned, sitting down to the floor and wiping the sweat off his forehead, panting heavily.

"Let's test it, then." Orochimaru bit his thumb, pressed it against the signet on his left little finger and then he formed the Seal of Confrontation, disappearing the same instant and leaving Naruto completely alone in the small laboratory room located in Otogakure.

The blond's eyes widened slowly as he let out a happy yell.

"Finally, damn it!" He disappeared as well, landing onto the floor in the Gates of the Tower next to the sannin the same second. "Everything's fine?"

The older man nodded thoughtfully, still studying the ring.

"Yes, it appears to be. Well done, Naruto-kun. Now you can afford wasting more of your precious time aimlessly instead of teleporting all the members in and out of here every meeting..."

The Uzumaki smirked, looking extremely self satisfied.

"But first, I want you to visit every member of our little club and repeat this manipulation with each of the existing rings. Except Sasuke's, I suppose, for obvious reasons."

Ignoring Naruto's outrage at his suggestion that actually sounded more like an order, Orochimaru kept looking at his hand, suppressing a victorious smirk.

His former friend's and rival's discipline was a true genius when it came to chakra manipulation and seals. Within a mere day, Naruto had managed to achieve something nearly impossible – a way to ensure the safety of each member, no less. Probably even more than that...

The technique the jinchūriki had created was rather simple in its design, but extremely hard in performance. By charging the ring with a certain portion of his own chakra, Naruto also created a small seal that was meant for one single purpose – merging the Uzumaki's sealed chakra with the chakra of the ring's owner by connecting the seal with his blood, and thus activating the one way charge of Flying Thunder God technique which was directed to the fixed point in the space – the Gates of the Tower.

In nutshell, it allowed anyone who possessed such ring perform an emergency teleportation to their hideout simply by putting their blood on the signet and forming the correct hand sign right away. And although the obvious flaw of this jutsu was the fact that nearly anybody who attained a ring would be able to use it, they still would have to know how exactly it is supposed to be used, which wasn't any obvious in their opinion. Besides, with the hidden chakra cloak on, Naruto would be able to sense a ring should it get stolen by somebody or simply lost, so it wouldn't be a problem for them.

The boy did an amazing job, and he was very skilled, the sannin could admit that much. Both Jiraiya and Minato were far inferior to him in basically everything, the lord of snakes knew it for sure by now.

 _What a shame that I didn't get to be his teacher, at least for a while... such a waste_ , Orochimaru smirked, clenching his fist and turning to the blond who was clearly very displeased with his assignment.

"Think about it this way, Naruto-kun. By doing it now, you'll be able to get more free time later, for the rings only need to be recharged every now and then. And besides, this way you will ensure the safety of your friends, isn't that correct?"

The Uzumaki's face changed slowly as he realized that his teammate was actually right... to some extent.

"Fine! But you are still a total ass, y'know? Even though you aren't that much of a creep anymore..."

Orochimaru smirked.

"My, have you started liking me in some inappropriate way, Naruto-kun? Careful, I might think that this is the case..."

Dodging his Rasengan, the Sannin jumped up, standing on the ceiling of the spacious empty room.

"You really shouldn't waste more of your time here, though. Don't forget that you still have to prepare for your mission in the Land of Water."

Naruto gritted his teeth in irritation, deactivating his shiny Chakra Mode and disappearing again.

Orochimaru nodded to himself, leaving the room and walking slowly to the nearest window. Giving his upgraded ring one more glance, he jumped out, landing onto the crowded street of Amegakure and ignoring the stares.

It was about noon, so it seemed. Apparently they had lost the track of time while they had been working on this advanced space-time jutsu... not that the snake sannin really cared about time for that matter.

Throughout the last few years, Akatsuki had made their hideout nearly impossible to breach – they had sealed every way in aside from the Gates, and the only way to get out of the massive building was wearing one of the special rings. And even having a on didn't grant the person a way to enter the hideout – it only allowed one to get out by using the windows, which wouldn't help much considering how enforced was Amegakure's military power now thanks to Jun's efforts and Kakashi's funding.

Fortunately enough, now he finally had a way to get back, thanks to Naruto. And hence he also had a way to go wherever he wanted at any time.

Not that Orochimaru had much to hide from the others nowadays, though. But this little breath of freedom was something that amused him for once, without a doubt.

And now he just wanted to stay alone for a while, which had been impossible before with Kakashi's dogs sneaking around – both literally and figuratively.  
He was an old and tired man, after all. He could afford a minute of weakness and solitude, couldn't he?

The man's lips twisted into a grim smirk as he passed by a few stores and eateries, walking towards the nearly empty plaza located in the end of the street.

He wasn't that rusty and weak, of course. At least he didn't feel like that at all, being immortal and with a relatively fresh body.

No, he was anything but old. In fact, he was still ready to do something great. To save the world, no less.

The shinobi rolled his eyes at the idea, shaking his head and sitting down onto the bench, raising his head slightly to gaze upon the sky, deep in his thought.

Saving the world... it sounded too vulgarly to his taste. A few years ago, he would laugh at this thought, without a doubt. Ironically enough, that was exactly what he intended to do, sooner or later.

Probably later, considering that Sasuke wasn't in any rush to get to Hidan's village and to look into the whole Jashin problem.

Of course, the sannin had been studying it in secret for months by now, because obviously something as significant just couldn't miss his curiosity. And by now, he knew exactly what awaited his former student at the end of his way to revealing Jashin's, or Kaguya's final secret.

He frowned.

This whole ordeal wasn't very pleasant to him, to say the least. After all, he grew... sort of attached to the Uchiha family lately – they were interesting and entertaining, both as his test subjects and as his allies. And he knew for sure that their potential future off-springs were not something he would want to miss.

But actually, he would have to miss it, for they wouldn't have a chance to be born anyway.

It just wasn't fair in his opinion, especially for Sasuke, which made this situation pretty damn pitiful, but Orochimaru didn't really mind it.  
After all, it seemed like he had finally discovered his destiny upon figuring this little puzzle out.

When he had tried to have a talk with Sasuke about it, the Uchiha had brushed him away, not even wanting to hear him out – he was too dedicated to his intention not to let Ōtsutsuki Kaguya get revived, but even more so he was dedicated to preserving his newfound family no matter what.

Little did Sasuke know that him facing Jashin's, or rather Kaguya's spirit would most likely mark the end of their world. Because considering the information that had been revealed by that Ōtsutsuki Toneri seventeen years ago, Kaguya was certain that one day, Sasuke would come after her. It was inevitable, and that's why Orochimaru had decided that trying to stop him would be pointless. He wouldn't listen, because their meeting was bound to happen.

It wasn't obvious at all, so the sannin didn't really blame him for not realizing it anyway. But at least he, the old snake, could see the pattern of Kaguya's plotting clearly.

She had either known or calculated everything that would happen after her downfall during the Fourth Great Ninja World. And she had a plan to return, this time having Indra's incarnation by her side.

All she would have to do would be using his wife that would follow him into the depths of hell no matter what. And if even he, Orochimaru, had realized it by now, then Kaguya clearly knew it as well.

Which in turn meant that Sasuke wouldn't come to Jashin without Hinata being by his side, providing the progenitor of all chakra with a perfect opportunity to possess the girl's body without anybody even realizing it.

Would it be hard for her to fool Sasuke and everyone else by imitating his wife's behavior? Hinata would be a perfect vessel for her, it was obvious by now, especially considering his own observations of the recent changes in the DNA of his former student's wife.

For someone of Kaguya's power and intelligence, all that seemed very plausible. And then, all she would have to do would be getting close to the Uchiha and absorbing his power, taking away their last hope to get rid of her terror for good.

All of that led the sannin to a very gruesome conclusion.

Hinata had to die prior to Sasuke meeting Jashin, and he, Orochimaru, was the only person capable of killing her right now, bypassing the protection she had in the faces of Indra and Ashura.

Kaguya had sure come up with a nearly perfect plan... however, he had studied Hinata's power and chakra well enough. He knew her weak spots perfectly, so destroying her wouldn't be a big problem considering that he was able to get close to her anytime in the Tower without drawing anyone's attention.

The ninja sighed, lowering his head and closing his eyes in grief.

He truly didn't want any of this to happen, but there hardly was any choice. Speaking rationally, she was too dangerous to be left alive in either case. All he could do to help the situation now was letting them stay together a bit longer...

Fortunately enough, their current mission had nothing to do with Hidan's village, and maybe he would be able to postpone the execution of his plan for a while.

And there was still a small chance that Sasuke would listen to him for once... after all, there still was a chance that Kaguya's plan wasn't as flawless as it seemed.

* * *

"You must be kidding me...," muttered Hinata from behind the mask, watching the scene that was going on right in front of them not far away from the Hokage's office in Konohagakure.

"Unsightly." Sasuke, who was standing next to her, closed his eyes, leaning against the wooden fencing with his arms crossed and with a deadpan expression on his face as people bypassed their small group.

"Yeah..." Naruto looked as if he was about to vomit, and the brown haired kunoichi that was wearing the ANBU uniform, as well as a mask that resembled a cat's face, hugged his arm tightly, unable to look away from the screaming and yelping small crowd a few yards away from them.

"At this rate, he's going to become more popular than us, Sasuke. We gotta do something about it, y'know," mumbled Naruto quietly, receiving a smack on his nape right away and shrieking pretentiously as if he was in pain.

"What do you need your former popularity for anyway? You are both already bound to us, Naruto. Your glory days are over, deal with it."

"But still, what did this fa... I mean, this fam even do to become more popular than us?! This is so unfair, damn it..."

"Chill, Naruto. He's not in a relationship and he's the heir to the richest clan in the village. It was more than predictable that he would get all the attention once we would get hooked up," Sasuke remained as impassive, refusing to look at the man whom he still despised a little bit.

"Besides, he did us a favor by accepting this position. You should be grateful," the ANBU kunoichi caressed his blond hair, clearly making the man loosen up within mere seconds.

"Yeah, that's true, can't deny that. You are so smart, you should be the next Hokage instead of me–" The jinchūriki winced at another light smack on his head before he was able to finish his sarcastic comment.

"If you keep picking Sasuke's bad manners, I might do just that! Nobody would want a Hokage like that anyway."

The Uchiha raised his brow skeptically.

"I'm still here, you know."

Hinata giggled, and the second kunoichi turned to him, raising her palm to her mouth reflexively in spite of wearing the mask.

"Oh... sorry, Sasuke-kun! I didn't mean that...! I just–"

"Yeah, I know what you wanted to say. Nobody would want a lame ass that is pretending to be cool as their Hokage."

"Oi, teme! Want me to kick your sorry ass again, huh?" Naruto growled, raising his fist.

"Go right ahead, it would be more entertaining than watching this pathetic shit anyway."

Naruto sighed in defeat, nodding and glaring in the direction of the crowd.

"True that..."

Finally breaking out of the thick ring of fan girls that surrounded him a few yards away from them, the white eyed man with short black hair gave the four of them a polite, apologizing smile, scratching his nape as he came close to them.

"Oh, there you are..."

"We've been here for good thirty minutes, moron. What do you have your Byakugan for?"

"Um, that..." He blushed, looking away shamefully. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you wait for me, but they just didn't let me go. I'm sure you've seen it, though..."

"Not that you didn't enjoy it, from what we noticed," Hinata giggled under the mask, making the man flinch.

"A-Anyway, once again, sorry for the long wait. I–"

"Have you brought the scrolls?" The demanding voice nearly made him flinch despite being superior to its owner in their clan.

"Y-Yes, Hanabi-san. Should I...?"

"About damn time," Sasuke raised his right hand, releasing a small wave of chakra that pulled the bunch of tied scrolls out of Kō's hands and putting them into his bag a second later. "Can we go now? I'm hungry." He hugged Hinata's waist tighter with his left hand, feeling as she touched his fingers reassuringly with her own palm.

"Wait a second, please... Hanabi-sama, are you sure? These scrolls contain the most treasured secrets of our clan. Is it wise to..."

"Yes, it is. Sasuke is a part of our family too now, or have you forgotten?" Without even seeing her face, the Uchiha knew what kind of a glare she was giving to Hinata's former guardian right now.

Kō, on the other hand, turned his head to look directly into Sasuke's only visible onyx black eye, meeting the deadpanned gaze of his.

"I haven't forgotten anything, and that's precisely why I'm asking you."

"Well, you have your answer now. Anything else?" By the sound of her voice, Hanabi was about to explode, while Hinata seemed not to care about what was going on one bit – at this point, Sasuke wasn't even sure if she was paying any attention to their conversation.

Naruto, on the other hand...

"I'd rather drop this matter right now if you don't want me to shove these scrolls down your ass, Kō." His tone was surprisingly calm, and that was the most frightening part about it, as well as his rare dead serious expression.

"As you order, _Hokage-sama_ ," the Hyūga muttered slightly mockingly, making Hanabi growl and rush towards him, but Naruto was faster – he gripped her by the waist, preventing the kunoichi from doing anything reckless.

"Let me go! I'll teach him some good lesson...!"

"Hanabi, calm down," both Sasuke and Hinata turned their heads to look at their friend who forced his girlfriend to back off, coming closer to the current head of the Hyūga clan instead of her, his cerulean eyes meeting his impassive white ones.

"I understand that you believe it to be wrong to share the secrets of your clan with your former rival and enemy, Kō. And I understand that you don't trust Sasuke and neither have any reason to. I also understand that I am nobody to command you... _yet_ ," he uttered quietly, not looking away from the older ninja's impassive face. "However, I'm asking you to trust us on this one, just this once. The information contained in these scrolls is needed to prevent a big catastrophe, and we must retrieve it as soon as possible if we want to save everyone. Sasuke will return them to you once we get through their contents. Remember that we are not your enemies, and we don't want to become ones either."

After a short pause, Kō nodded slowly, to which Naruto nodded as well, turning around and stepping away before stopping for a second, giving the man a short glance over his shoulder.

"And if I hear you badmouthing my brother, his wife or my fiancé ever again, I will wreck your sorry face, whether I'm a Hokage or not." He turned away again, coming close to Hanabi and hugging her tightly while Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his friend, peering at him searchingly.

 _His brother_... although they were brothers in all but blood – in fact, even in their very souls – Naruto had never referred him like that before. At least certainly not in the Uchiha's presence.

It was... a bit strange to hear. As if something intangible had changed between them throughout the last few years.

And now that he thought about it, they had really become closer. And both of them treasured this brotherhood and this friendship dearly, of that he was sure.

Of course, both of them had changed since the War, that was also true. And as reluctant as he was to admit it, Sasuke knew that Hanabi was right when she said that they picked some of each other's habits and traits. For instance, Naruto's manner of speech clearly had become more mature and less guileless, whereas the Uchiha had become significantly more chatty comparing to his former self, and although it was only notable to his closest people, it had become easier for him to express his emotions and feelings, which was why he did it more often than before nowadays.

He wasn't sure if that was a bad thing, but then again, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't find any negative sides in this ...phenomenon, which made the head of the Uchiha clan decide that it was pretty much irrelevant, no matter how amazing to him it seemed sometimes.

"Sasuke...? Are you still here with us?" He snapped out of his thought, noticing Hinata's palm waving slowly right in front of his face, which made him feel a little embarrassed, but the man didn't hesitate and replied quickly,

"Yeah. I just spaced out because of your beauty. Your fault. You are looking marvelous today," he smiled, taking her hand into his and moving his gaze at Naruto and Hanabi who were busy... cuddling and giggling like idiots.

Maybe he didn't really want to look at them, after all.

He turned back to Hinata who, he was sure, was staring at him with suspicion through the mask.

"Of my beauty, you say...? This is about my hair then, I suppose? Because you can't see anything else," she drawled with a slight note of doubt in her voice, which made the Uchiha grin devilishly.

"Not really. I can see everything with my Rinnegan. And I mean _everything_." He felt her punching him in the ribs lightly, making the man wince pretentiously.

"Oh, stop it! You're lying!"

"Sure, whatever you say."

"Sasuke...!"

Giving another glance to Naruto and Hanabi who were apparently too busy with each other, he lowered his head to Hinata's ear and whispered huskily, making her shudder as she felt his hot breath on her skin,

"Why are you blushing so much, though? You weren't so modest last night when we–"

"Oh, no! Shut up, you...!" She yelped loudly, making the Uzumaki and his girlfriend finally get distracted from each other as they turned their heads into their direction, clearly surprised.

Hinata covered her masked face with her palms, although Sasuke knew for sure what her current expression looked like.

"Fine, I'll stay quiet for the rest of the day," he stepped towards his best friend and his girlfriend, feeling Hinata gripping the collar of his shirt from behind the next second as she leaned against his back, whispering into his ear this time,

"Don't be a such a douche if you want me to stop being this modest again tonight."

He smirked, nodding without turning back.

"Point taken. Anyway, are the two of you done yet? We should get out of here, I don't feel like standing in the middle of the street until midnight. And we still have to meet with Sakura and Lee anyway."

"Yeah, I can sense them from here, they are near the hospital. Wanna go there right away?" Naruto smirked, hugging Hanabi who fixed the mask on her face to make sure that nobody around would see her face.

Ever since she had resigned from her heritage in order to be able to marry Naruto in future, she didn't want anyone in Konoha to see her with him, which was why she had been hiding her face whenever they went out in public. After all, nobody in the village was brave enough to dare and try to approach an ANBU and their future Hokage, no matter how curious everyone were to find out the name of the Uzumaki's love interest.

But the two of them had decided that they didn't want any information about them to spill out until they would actually get married – after all, they had enough trouble haunting them constantly without the unnecessary attention and gossip.

It was a wise decision on their part in Sasuke's opinion. They already had more than ample problems without all of that unnecessary stuff, starting with their upcoming mission, Hinata's Ōtsutsuki stalkers and the fact that Kakashi... he was probably the definition of trouble himself.

Sometimes it seemed like the Sixth was getting on his nerves on purpose by not letting him do what he intended to do with Hidan's help...

Of course, the Hokage couldn't possibly know about his secret plan to travel to Yugakure with the immortal maniac in order to have a conversation with Kaguya's spirit, but sometimes it seemed nearly as if Kakashi knew everything about this idea and was deliberately trying to prevent him from going there for some idiotic reason.

Their former sensei was such an annoyance...

"Oh, come one, teme, don't be so moody! We got a party to attend tonight, put that grim face away!"

Sasuke glared at his friend who was apparently in his happiest state right now as they maneuvered between the people that walked the evening street of Konoha along with them.

"I was born with this face, sorry, dobe."

"Nah, don't give me this bullshit! Nobody looks like he ate a pile of crap when he's born!"

"You looked like that when you were born, though. I saw it."

"W-Wha...? Hey, how the heck is that even possible?!"

"I'm older than you, remember?"

"You were still just a toddler, teme! Stop messing with me!"

They exchanged a few light punches and kicks while keeping their verbal duel going as well, although obviously not being serious in any of that, while the masked sisters were walking not far behind them, both smiling brightly at the two friends. People around them didn't pay the two kunoichi any attention – apparently the famous heroes of the war drew all the eyes to themselves, much to the girls' common relief.

"They are just like silly children sometimes, really..." Hanabi mumbled, shaking her head and letting out a loud sigh.

"You can't deny that they look cute, though," Hinata smiled, noticing her sister sneering as well – both of them had their Byakugan activated, so they could see the expressions of each other clearly.

"Maybe, when they are not behaving like two retards, though," she snapped, still unable to hold back a grin.

"You sure have picked some words from Naruto," the older sister commented, making Hanabi's cheeks redden.

"Oh, please. It's only natural. Have you noticed how much you picked from Sasuke yourself?"

Hinata shrugged, keeping smiling brightly.

"I never said it was a bad thing, though. There is no need to get so defensive about it," Hanabi rolled her eyes, looking away sheepishly, which made Hinata's smile widen even more. "I haven't seen you in a while. You are becoming more and more beautiful, little sister."

The ANBU kunoichi glanced at her cautiously, as if unsure how to react to the sudden complement.

"Thanks... well, what can I say? I don't have the permission to come to the Tower whenever I like, thanks to the three of you. The Sixth won't allow me to join Akatsuki because of your idiocy. I hope you are happy now."

Hinata tapped her shoulder lightly, making the young woman that was an inch or two taller than her glare at her black haired sister angrily.

"It's for your own good. We wish the best for you, and you know it."

"Oh yeah? Don't give me this crap. At least you get to be with him whenever you want, whereas I can only hope every evening for Naruto to pop in my room, which happens once in a century considering how busy he is!"

Hinata's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she smirked at her outburst.

"In your room, you say...?"

Hanabi gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, not looking at her older sister.

"Don't. Don't you dare to even start this."

"Start what?"

Hanabi groaned, rolling her eyes to the yellow sky.

"You know what! Jeez, you've become absolutely impossible, Uchiha!"

"You are just too cute when you're getting teased... Uzumaki."

The younger kunoichi blushed even deeper, but then both of them realized something, glancing simultaneously at Sasuke and Naruto who were walking just few yards ahead of them, apparently discussing something funny – the blond was laughing loudly, and the raven haired man was smirking as well as he was telling something to his friend.

"It's strange. Who could've assumed that one day we would end up like this...?" Hanabi mumbled, looking at the horizon dreamily.

"Nobody, I suppose. But that's life... you never know what is waiting for you around the corner. Are you complaining?" She gave the brown haired kunoichi a troubled look – her sister still stared somewhere afar from them, clearly reflecting on the events of the past few years.

"No, I'm not." Hinata frowned – she knew that it wasn't that easy for Hanabi to get used to this new reality they had found themselves in shortly after the War, and it was even harder for the young woman to abandon her heritage and her clan for the purpose of being with her beloved one...

Something Hinata herself had done years ago, even though she hadn't been the one who had made this choice.

Hanabi, however, had done it willingly about three months ago, and it was completely out of the blue – they hadn't even known that she and Naruto had been dating, which they actually had been doing in secret for a while by that moment. But the two of them clearly hadn't felt like talking about their relationship, and neither Sasuke nor Hinata were persistent enough to venture into it – after all, they respected their privacy.

Yet still, sometimes Hinata couldn't help but wonder how had it come to this. Until recently, Hanabi and Naruto weren't very fond of each other to say the least...

The black haired woman sighed.

She could only hope that one day her sister would tell her this story...

"But?"

Hanabi bit her lower lip, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully.

"It's just that... ugh... sometimes I wonder where it's all going to lead us. I mean... everything so far had been going way too smoothly, don't you think so? Especially lately. Somehow...," she sighed, lowering her eyes to the ground sadly, "Somehow I feel like it's all going to end soon. As if something terrible is drawing near, but we just can't see it yet. Don't you have such feeling?"

Hinata looked away, raising her eyes to the point on the sky where her Byakugan spotted the moon.

"No... no, I don't think so. Maybe you are just nervous about the upcoming wedding?"

Much to her surprise, Hanabi didn't react any shyly to her question and neither did she recognize her sister's lie.

"No, that's not it... at least I'm pretty sure it's not. Our wedding will be similar to the one you guys had, so there is not much to be nervous about, especially knowing that Naruto never goes back on his word, and I love him anyway. Maybe it's...," Hinata peered at her sister thoughtfully without looking directly at her, using her dōjutsu. "Perhaps I'm just too frustrated..."

It was Hinata's turn to blush now.

"O-Oh..."

Hanabi snapped her head to look at her, blushing terribly the next second as well, looking like she was about to freak out.

"N-No, not in that way, you stupid pervert! What on earth are you even thinking? Mind your own business, okay? Jeez!" she hissed, making Hinata lower her eyes sheepishly.

She got her there, of course. The frustration from the last few weeks was way too strong, and one night with her husband could hardly negate it completely.

"I'm sorry... what did you mean, then?" asked Hinata quietly after a short, awkward pause.

"Working under the Sixth. In spite of knowing of my capabilities and my skill, he keeps pushing me into paperwork more and more with each day. I haven't been out on a mission for two months straight now, can you imagine that?! Some ANBU I am!"

Hinata's eyebrow cocked in surprise.

"Huh? Why would he do that to you? That's not fair at all..."

"Tell me about it! I wish I could knock some sense into him, but he doesn't listen to me... and I wonder what his reasoning is. Anyway, it appears we have come," she mumbled, pointing at the pair that was waving at them from the entrance of the hospital. "Greetings, Lee-sensei! Sakura!"

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Lee!" Naruto grinned happily, bumping fists with the taijutsu master.

"Yo," simply said Sasuke, nodding at the two of them.

"Hello, everyone! Are you ready for some hot springs? We've ordered the rooms, everything should be ready soon," Sakura smiled, realizing that it wouldn't be wise to greet them personally given that neither Hinata nor Hanabi's name was allowed to be voiced out loud in the village right now.

"Are they private enough...?" muttered the black haired kunoichi quietly, and when the medic nin was about to reply, Sasuke interrupted his former teammate,

"I'll put everyone there under my genjutsu just in case anyway. Let's go already, I haven't even eaten today yet."

* * *

A few hours later, after spending a rather uneventful evening with his friends, Sasuke was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling of their room in the hotel at the Hot Springs in Konoha, thinking simultaneously about all the things that had been bothering him for long time by now, which basically meant that he wasn't really thinking – more like trying to fight the sudden insomnia which had come upon him so unexpectedly this night, much unlike Hinata who was probably having her tenth dream by now, resting next to him and breathing quietly and calmly.

Stretching his left arm in front of him, the Uchiha clenched his fingers a few times, looking gloomily at the limb which still seemed a bit foreign to him. Somehow he had managed to adapt to living without it throughout the last three years, and the decision to accept it back hadn't been any easy to make for the young man, especially knowing the possible consequences...

He had grown accustomed to the idea that this was his payment for all of the sins he had committed in the past, which was pretty much justified in his opinion – back when Sakura had offered him an artificial arm made off the First Hokage's cells, he had refused to tell them why he didn't want it. Not because he didn't trust his former team, but rather because he was ashamed of his reasoning.

Yes... shame was probably the most correct word to use here. To him, the idea of punishing himself by living the rest of his life with only one arm seemed... appealing. It seemed right.

To everyone else, it would most likely seem freaky, though. They wouldn't understand, and he couldn't possibly blame them for it.

When he had finally made an attempt to tell them two months ago, they didn't get it, obviously. Which resulted in all of them - his wife, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi - convincing him to agree to get his arm back without trying to venture into his reasoning, which was probably good, now that he thought about it. They didn't really have to know, it was dangerous for all of them.

He still wasn't sure if that was a good idea to accept the arm back, though.

The Uchiha flinched as the elegant pale fingers touched his shoulder, making him turn his head to meet Hinata's sleepy, squinting eyes.

"Hey...," she whispered as her gaze slid up his raised hand.

"Hey," echoed he equally as quietly, though still not lowering the limb down.

"What's bothering you? Why are you awake?" She yawned, covering her mouth with a palm and putting her chin onto his shoulder, her face being just an inch away from his own.

"Just couldn't sleep. Nothing to worry about."

She frowned, staring into his eyes for a few seconds.

"You always sleep like a bear in hibernation after such evenings. What's up?" She caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, still not looking away from his eyes for a second.

Hinata had learned to read him with ease throughout their years together, and he knew that hiding anything from her would be pointless.

Yet still...

"You're still feeling guilty... am I right?"

He nodded slowly after a short pause, looking away from her, unable to withstand the piercing gaze of the beloved white eyes, but she didn't let him – touching his chin lightly, she turned his head back gently, forcing her husband to look at her again, to which he frowned nearly sheepishly.

"You shouldn't think that way, Sasuke. You have atoned for your sins long ago. Just let it remain in the past... please."

He sighed intermittently, closing his eyes.

"It's... not that simple."

"I know," the man felt the light touch of her lips on his cheek. "But you must. There is no other way. And besides, I want my husband to be happy. And healthy. Stop punishing yourself, I'm begging you."

His eyes snapped open, as if she cast some spell only he could feel.

"You don't understand..."

"Then explain it to me. I'm not stupid, I will understand."

Remaining silent for a few seconds, he then moved his eyes to his still stretched up hand.

"I... I'm not sure if it worked as it was intended to work."

"Huh?" Hinata frowned, still not moving her gaze off his face. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto used his chakra to restore my hand the same way he did it with Kakashi's eye during the War. In the end, it resulted in Kakashi retaining the ability to use his Sharingan even long after Obito's death. It is probably limited, but he can still use it, as you well know."

"And...?" Clearly she didn't understand. Well, how could she...? It was one of the things he himself was afraid of. One of the things he wanted to keep locked as deep down in his soul and mind as possible, hidden from everybody...

Because he knew that eventually it could be released... one day. And this... this would destroy everything everything he loved.

"Naruto's chakra has obviously enhanced Kakashi's abilities. And now that he restored my arm, it is likely that I have received a portion of his power, too."

She chuckled, which made his heart sank.

 _She still doesn't get it..._

"Is that what's bothering you? Are you afraid to become too strong for us to handle you?"

"Yeah."

Hinata's smile disappeared as she noticed something she had never seen in his eyes before.

 _Fear._

"But... but why? What are you so afraid of...?" She whispered, wrapping her arm around his chest and hugging the man tightly, trying to comfort him.

Apparently it was very hard for him to talk about it, but Hinata was a very gentle woman. She didn't hurry him up in any way, waiting patiently as he opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally uttering a minute later,

"I'm... I'm afraid that should our plan fail... should the idea of Akatsuki fail... should Naruto's ideals fail... I might decide to stick back to my initial plan. To the revolution. And last time we fought, Naruto was barely able to stop me. If I become stronger than him... nobody will be able to stop me anymore."

Her eyes widened, and she stared at him for a good minute without saying anything, watching as the single tear rolled down his cheek.

"I... I don't want it all to go away. I don't want to lose you... I don't want to lose everything I have once again."

He flinched as she giggled quietly, brushing his hair and pulling a few unruly strands to be able to see both of his eyes clearly.

"Sometimes you are so silly, Sasuke. What makes you think that it's even possible? So what if this plan fails? Why would you go for this revolution now, with everything you have done and gained? It makes no sense."

His tone changed for a moment to a different, but still familiar one as he uttered,

"For the same reason why I always did."

Hinata pulled away from him a little, instantly recognizing Indra's soft voice.

"No. You will not. I believe in you. And even if you will...," she took his hand in hers, making Sasuke meet her gaze again. "I will follow you, no matter what you decide to do. I love you."

His lips finally curved into a barely notable smile.

"I love you too. Sleep now. I'll go downstairs for a while, I'm thirsty."

"Mhm." She kissed him on the lips before finally setting her head on the soft pillow again, closing her eyes and nearly instantly sinking back into the dreamland.

Getting out of their bed, Sasuke picked his shirt and pants, dressing up and grabbing his cloak from the chair before leaving the room and walking down the stairs to the first floor.

The entire hotel was already nearly absolutely quiet, which wasn't surprising considering that it was already nearly midnight, and there weren't many visitors here at this time of the year anyway.

"So you are going already, huh?" The Uchiha's head snapped towards the voice that was coming from the entrance of the hall.

"Yeah. The sooner I get it done, the better."

Naruto eyed him up and down critically, taking a sip of some cocktail from the glass he was holding as he sat in a big, comfy chair near the doors.

"You look like shit, teme. You should go and rest, y'know. It can wait a day or two - after all, we have plenty of time before the mission."

Sasuke shook his head reluctantly.

"No. I must go now. The date and time for this meeting is settled, and I can't afford skipping it. There may be no other chance."

Naruto sighed, though nodding in understanding.

"Want me to tag along?"

The raven haired man shook his head again.

"No. You better go back to your girl and have some rest yourself. Who knows when you'll get another opportunity to spend some time with her?"

Naruto grinned, nodding in appreciation.

"Thanks, Sasuke. You are right. Eh... take care, will ya?"

"You too."

The rift opened in the space right in front of the Uchiha, and he stepped forward, disappearing in the mist.


	27. Road to Nowhere

_And a boy_  
 _Wasted and worried and lone  
_ _And a boy  
_ _Tired of singing his song away...  
_ _Singing his love away...  
_ _And a boy  
_ _Ready to go anywhere  
_ _And a boy  
_ _Stepped on the road to nowhere..._

 **\- All That I Can See**

 **Chapter 27. Road to Nowhere**

Wincing slightly at the gusts of icy wind that was blowing his hair and making him squint despite the lack of sunshine, Sasuke walked through the desolace that had once been a beautiful forest in the Land of Lightning, trying to figure out where exactly was his destination at the moment and, at the same time, thinking about multiple things that had been bothering him for weeks or even months by now.

Frankly speaking, he probably wasn't supposed to be there, and he certainly wasn't supposed to do what he was about to do. No... putting it like that would be a a huge understatement. Actually, should anybody have found out about his business here in this dead place that was feared across the world ever since the last Great War, the Uchiha would've been done for, of that he was pretty sure. After all, even in spite the small amount of trust he had managed to earn so far, nobody would understand his decision, his true motives. They would think that he intends to revive the jūbi once again, and even Naruto would most likely become highly suspicious of him should he find out...

Of course, knowing his former reputation, as well as the reputation of his clan and his previous incarnation, they would only be right to think this way in his opinion. That would be logical, and which was why he couldn't allow anyone to find out.  
For their own sake...

Fortunately enough, the Uchiha was smart enough to plan it all through flawlessly, and at the same time, he was powerful enough to execute this tricky plan. So far, everything had been going smoothly save for Naruto noticing his departure back in Konoha. He had been able to trick his friend, though... and as painful as it was for him to lie to Ashura's incarnation, Sasuke knew that there was no other choice.

Because he was by no means a fool. In fact, it seemed like he was the only one to see what was coming...

Kaguya had foreseen their every single move up to this very moment, as if she just knew for sure what they would do. She was now waiting patiently in her incorporeal form for Toneri to make his move towards Hinata, and thus for the opportunity to come back into their world in flesh. And no matter what they could try to do, seeing Kaguya's intelligence so far, Sasuke had come to the simple conclusion – they had no logical way of preventing her return by outplaying the progenitor of all chakra in her own game.

No, in order to get rid of her for good, they needed something else. The element of surprise had a chance to work, recalling Naruto's Reverse _Haremu no Jutsu_. After all, she was pretty arrogant, and that's why he needed to come up with something unexpected that would break all of her plans with a single move. Something insane enough for her not to even consider such possibility seriously...

And Sasuke was just the person to pull such thing exactly because of the reputation he had. In fact, the more he thought about it, the stronger was the realization that he was the only one who could make it real. The Uchiha was the only one capable of saving his world, his village and his family, and no matter what sacrifices must be made for that purpose, he would do everything, including sacrificing himself should it ever become necessary.

He smirked grimly, noticing the small hunched figure on the horizon that was wrapped in a simple dark brown loose overall.

Yes, his plan definitely sounded very similar to sacrificing himself, both figuratively and literally. But he had already made this decision.

There was simply no other choice, after all. Otherwise they would all die soon, with Hinata going down first.

According to his plan, Sasuke needed to find a way to enter Kaguya's realm and destroy her very essence once and for all. No matter how much power and chakra she possessed, he was positive that she wasn't exactly immortal – just too powerful for anyone from their world to kill her.

However, Madara had claimed to be immortal as well, and where was he now?

No, there had to be a way to end her life, to obliterate her very spirit. Something was binding her soul to their world... he just had to find the anchor, which, as he assumed, logically was located somewhere in the same realm where she was currently residing.

In other words, his plan was rather simple in nutshell. To make Hidan show him the way to enter said realm, gather enough power to withstand another fight against her supposedly weakened version, and during their fight, he would need to figure out a way to end her existence.

Initially, he had been considering asking for Naruto's help, which at first approach seemed like the best possible idea in this situation, but after some thinking, Sasuke realized that there were a few reasons why he didn't want his friend to join him this time.

The most important one of these reasons was that should Sasuke die himself... being completely honest with himself, he could say that nothing would change all that much. The future of the Uchiha clan was already relatively secured with Yutaka in that case, and the world... Naruto was powerful and influential enough to maintain peace on his own, without Sasuke's help, especially with Kakashi by his side. On the other hand, the accidental death of Naruto could lead everything to unpredictable drastic consequences regarding their organization and Kakashi's plan.

In other words, the jinchūriki was far more important for their world than his best friend.

Aside from that, the Uzumaki had already helped him way too much unknowingly. By giving Sasuke the small piece of his power through regrowing his limb, and also by telling him exactly how he had acquired Kyūbi's chakra in the past for the first time... it was probably the most important piece of information as it was hinting up the way spiritual fights usually went.

Now, after hearing Naruto's story, the Uchiha was nearly sure that should everything go according to his plan, he would have fight Kaguya under the same conditions as Naruto when he had fought the demonic fox. Which was basically the only thing Sasuke could count on in this gamble, but that was already a lot in his opinion.

Back in that fight, both Naruto and the Kyūbi had unlimited chakra. Basically, it was the battle of skill and willpower... and in these aspects, the young raven haired man knew for sure he could rival Kaguya.

Which in the end only meant that he had to seek for as much power as possible just to ensure everything going the right way.

And today, he was going to make his first step in that direction...

"You are two hours late. What have you been doing?" The familiar raspy voice echoed across the wasteland, making Sasuke grit his teeth in annoyance.

"Your daughter," he barked, fighting the temptation to smirk as he saw the man's eyes narrow hatefully as his face paled in the intense wrath he felt towards the Uchiha. "I hope you haven't been wasting time either. Have you found it?"

Hiashi nodded hesitantly as Sasuke glared searchingly at his wrinkled, nearly unrecognizable face.

The last few years certainly weren't easy for the former head of the Hyūga clan. Living in hiding, basically being a hermit that's been wanted by many ninja around the world, having no money or home, he now looked exhausted, sick, nearly broken. Although it was actually pretty surprising for Sasuke that the man was even still alive, the Uchiha wasn't going to show any mercy to the the Hyūga after all the pain and trouble he had caused to his wife and himself.

No, it was quite the opposite... Sasuke was going to use Hiashi as his pawn until the old man's last breath, exactly as he was doing it right now.

"Yes, I have. It's not far from here, I think you should be able to either sense or see it with your left eye. There," he coughed and pointed to the east, to which the Uchiha nodded vigorously and strode in the hinted direction.

"Anything else you have discovered? Any intel is welcome," Sasuke said causally, not looking at the man who was trudging after him.

"Not much," came the laconic reply after a few seconds of silence and panting, "To anyone who hasn't seen what exactly happened here, it looks like an insignificant anomaly in the natural chakra flow which is impossible to notice for anyone without either a dōjutsu or the ability to utilize senjutsu. But since I was there when it got wrenched off, I was able to remember the exact spot, so I can say for sure. There is no mistake..."

The Uchiha stopped, frowning and studying the space around them with his Rinnegan.

Hiashi was right. The natural chakra around them flowed strangely, twisting in the bizarre way, as if bypassing the small spot a few yards right ahead of the ninja.

Evidently the Hyūga happened to be pretty useful for his plan. Letting him live for a few more years turned to be a right decision, after all...

"So... what's your plan? How are you going to destroy it?" He coughed loudly again, this time spitting some blood onto the ground – apparently the man was indeed sick, which was hardly surprising considering how miserable his life had been lately.

Sasuke nearly flinched as his gaze slid to the old man at his last line.

 _What a naive fool..._

"I have my ways," the Uchiha finally replied evasively, moving his eyes back to the space in front of them. "Are you certain that there is nothing else around? Seals? Traps? Anything?"

Hiashi nodded, panting heavily.

"I am sure... there is nothing. I need to deactivate my Byakugan now... I'm too exhausted..."

"Yeah, go right ahead. In that letter you sent me... you mentioned that Kakashi had used his Kamui on the Mazō right here, just before Madara had summoned it. I need to...," he turned around and rushed forward the next second, noticing that the older shinobi was about to collapse and gripping his forearm, allowing the man to slung the weak hand over his shoulder.

"T-Thanks...," mumbled Hiashi, and it sounded... sincere, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

He had grown way too soft lately.

"Yes, I think he has... and..." He stopped, feeling the foreign presence in his mind and gritting his teeth, although not making any attempts to back off. "Are you... reading my memories?"

"Yeah. I need to get the precise picture of what happened here." The Uchiha frowned, focusing, and then, a few seconds later, he grinned contentedly as he found exactly what he had been looking for.

Back during the war, Kakashi had indeed used Kamui on Gedō Mazō after it had gotten extracted from Obito's body, trying to send it into another dimension before Madara would be able to retrieve it. Of course, his former sensei had failed, but only partly so – the statue's right arm got wrenched off, and it was clear that this part of it was still there, in the dimension of Kamui.

Sasuke's heart began beating faster. Something was very wrong here... no, even more so.

If Hiashi still remembered about this incident, Kakashi most certainly hadn't forgotten about it as well. And it would be very reckless on Hatake's part to just leave the piece of Kaguya's shell there, without anything or anyone to guard it. Of course, remaining in that dimension could be considered the same as being sealed, much like the the rest of the statue was now sealed in one of Kaguya's worlds by Sasuke and Naruto, given that there was nobody alive with the same Mangekyō ability as Obito and Kakashi himself.

However... it had been proven that in time, another Uchiha with the same ability could very well be born. And although the possibility of him locating this piece of statue in another dimension was relatively small, it was still there, and as Black Zetsu had proven, even the smallest chances could be used to cause another catastrophe.  
In other words, Kakashi was leaving this opportunity on purpose, but why? What for and for whom? Was he intending to provoke him, Uchiha Sasuke? But there were no warding seals around, Hiashi had just confirmed it. Besides, he was aware of his ability to travel through dimensions, which meant that Kakashi either didn't seriously consider the possibility of him going after it, or was sure that they had a way to stop him should it ever happen.

Which could only mean...

Sasuke's eyes widened at the shocking realization.

It was very unlike the Sixth to leave any possibilities unconsidered, especially when it came to the matters of utmost importance. Which was leaving only one possible option considering that Kakashi just couldn't have simply forgotten about it.

He had to be absolutely sure that there would be no Uchiha capable of awakening Mangekyō Sharingan... or, simply put... that the Uchiha clan would cease to exist soon...?

Could it be that the Hokage weren't going to let his clan be revived...? That he had been using him all along, after all, exactly as Sasuke had been suspecting for a while by now? That when his power wouldn't be needed any longer, they would all get purged, and this time – for good?

The young man could feel his heart clench as he felt the familiar pain.

That must be why Kakashi had assigned them for the mission of finding the remaining possible Uchiha survivors, starting in the next few days. He just wanted to make sure that all the remaining parts of their cursed clan would be gathered together in order to exterminate all of them later...!

Sasuke's body began to shake and he felt his eyes filling with searing pain. Once again, he felt betrayed... betrayed by Konoha!

"Are... are you alright...?" Hiashi wheezed, sounding touchingly worried as he saw Sasuke's face paling as his hands began to tremble.

"Yeah... let's go," the younger ninja mumbled indistinctly as his tongue wouldn't obey him, focusing his chakra in the left eye and opening another dimensional rift.  
Fortunately enough, he still remembered well enough how Kakashi's dōjutsu worked, and he could calibrate his own power in the right way to open the portal into the dimension of Kamui.

Neither of them noticed the small white snake creeping after the two shinobi as they stepped forward, entering the empty lifeless space and standing on the flat light gray stone pillar that was going down into the black, endless abyss.

"Here it is...!" Hiashi gasped, pointing at the huge arm of the statue that rested on the similar pillar next to them and leaning onto Sasuke, too weakened to stand on his own. "So... you said you have your ways... you and the Uzumaki boy have already destroyed the rest of the statue, is that correct?"

Sasuke swallowed heavily, nodding hesitantly, as if he didn't really hear what Hiashi said, but then he replied quietly after a short pause,

"Yes. I will take care of it." He gripped the man's hand on his shoulder tightly, making the Hyūga gasp in slight pain.

"What... what are you doing...?" he hissed, suddenly feeling as if his soul was being slowly ripped out of his body.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt at all, and your memories can still be useful to me."

The white eyes widened in fear.

"What's the meaning of this...? What are you saying, Sasuke...?!" But it was clearly visible on his face – the man had already realized what was going on.

"I can't let you go again now that you know what I'm after, Hiashi. You have served your purpose by leading me to this place, and you also suffered long enough – I think it's a fair punishment for everything you've done. Nobody will find your corpse here... not that I think anybody will bother to look for you anyway. You may rest in peace now. Consider that my gift to you."

Feeling as his soul was leaving his body, Hiashi tried to focus his eyes on Sasuke's slowly waning image for the last time.

"Will you... save her...?"

"No matter what."

With a light push, the lifeless corpse fell into the abyss, and the last thing Sasuke noticed before the darkness consumed the Hyūga was the small smile of relief and tranquility on the tired, wrinkled face.

* * *

Hinata opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times as she didn't realize it right away where she was. Everything around her was bright blue... was it the sky? Was she floating...? Or...

The woman frowned, but apparently it was merely a coincidence – she couldn't really move a muscle on her own. Was this... a dream? Another vision from Indra's past she was seeing thanks to the Cursed Seal on her neck? But if that was the case, then why wasn't she controlling her own body...? It had never happened before... and she couldn't see Indra anywhere around...

"Hagoromo … Hamura. I have made my decision. Step back now, children."

Hinata wanted to gasp, but she couldn't, of course – she wasn't the one to say this sentence... but this voice was hers, wasn't it? Her lips were moving on their own...

"Wait, mother …! There are still...!"

"Silence, Hagoromo." She realized it belatedly that her voice was sounding loud enough to reach the town hundred yards below as she was floating midair, staring with her Byakugan at the two teens who were standing at the the central square of the vast settlement, surrounded by the crowd of frightened people.

Both the teens were dressed in similar white coats with multiple magatama on the collars and cuffs. Although they faces looked very similar to each other, one of young men had long straight white hair, and his eyes were the same as her own, with the Byakugan activated, staring back at her with no fear or any emotion for that matter.

The other one's hair was short, dark brown, whereas his eyes were purple...  
No. They were the same as Sasuke's left one...

 _The Rinnegan!_

And although the familiar eyes looked nearly identical to those of Madara and Sasuke, something about them was significantly different. They were...

 _Compassionate._

Unlike the young man with Byakugan, this one was looking at her with sadness, passionate determination and also with... kindness. His gaze was soft, nearly weakly so, and it was so unlike what she was used to see whenever she met someone with Rinnegan... he reminded her of someone from the past, but Hinata couldn't figure out who it was.

The second man, on the other hand...

"Just stop it, brother. Let it go, there is nothing we can do. It's useless, she's too stubborn to be reasoned with," he whispered, but she could read his lips with ease. At the same time, as confusing as it was, it seemed like she couldn't – or at least the person that possessed her body clearly didn't since Hinata felt no reaction to it from her.

"No, I...!"

"That's enough. I'm going to destroy this settlement, as well as these bugs. They broke my law by attacking the Land of Demons, and they have be punished for committing this sin. Don't make me force you out of there, Hagoromo."

The brown haired teen gritted his teeth, although there was no sign of anger in his eyes – more like despair and prayer.

"Mother, please! Just hear me out! We've been investigating this issue, it's much more than just–"

She could feel as her left arm raised, and before she could study her pale white long fingers with nearly creepily long and thin nails, the rift similar to the one Sasuke utilized for traveling opened in front of her. Reaching out forward, she grabbed Hagoromo's collar from behind, but then Hinata felt that someone pushed her hand away, as well as a burst of foreign, burning anger inside of her – it was at this point clear that she could only see and feel through this person's eyes and body, but she had no control what so ever over what was going on.

And said person was apparently no one else but Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.

Which meant that these two were her children, Hagoromo and Hamura... now it made sense, at least.

"Fine then. You shall be punished for your insolence, too." The rift closed, and she lowered her hand, meeting Hagoromo's vigorous gaze.

She formed the sign of confrontation in front of her, and then, before anyone could react, multiple lightnings struck the town from the clear sky, turning everything below into dust, fire and flinders and gore within an instant.

But her... no, Kaguya's children were still there, standing on the same spot. Hagoromo was covering them with his shining white chakra avatar that looked very similar to Sasuke's Susanō, whereas Hamura covered a bunch of children and infants with his body and multiple bones that formed a shield around them, clearly not fully believing in his brother's capability of protecting them all.

"That should be enough," she muttered, lowering to the ground and walking towards the survivors slowly while they just stared at her – the kids were too shocked to react to her approach and to the hell their world turned to become all of sudden, whereas the Ōtsutsuki twins remained firm, stepping towards her and hiding the others behind their backs.

"Should you have listened to me and moved away, I would only destroy a half of this settlement. You need to learn to obey me, Hagoromo," she uttered quietly, but her voice sounded frightening even to Hinata herself. This Kaguya was probably the most scary person the Uchiha matriarch had ever met... even worse than Madara.

No... actually, she was far worse than him. At least Madara's intentions were noble, and his heart was kind.

"You never mentioned that, mother! And besides, why didn't you just listen to me?! All these people didn't need to die! They were innocent, just like these kids...!"

"Innocent, you say?" she nearly whispered, coming close to them and looking at the last survivors of the Town of Chi. "What makes you think that anybody is innocent? What gives you the right to judge anyone? To define innocence?"

Hamura just frowned, but remained silent, whereas Hagoromo snarled, staring into her eyes with frustration and, for the first time, with anger.

"Isn't it obvious? Just tell me, what did they do to you? What did all these kids do for you to just kill them?!" The brown haired teen yelled while the little girl, not older than five, gripped his leg from behind, peeking at Kaguya with her black eyes filled with fear and reverence.

"They were raised up by sinners, and they are going to grow up into sinners as well one day. Nobody is innocent, my son. Including you."

"So what, then? Are you going to kill me as well?!"

The woman frowned, raising her hand again, and Hinata wanted to scream in horror and despair, but she still couldn't do anything. Was this monster really going to kill her own child for such an idiotic reason...?

Her long fingers touched Hagoromo's cheek, stroking him softly which made the teen gasp and flinch in surprise. Clearly tenderness wasn't something Kaguya's children received from her very often...

"Of course not, my child. Both of you are simply misguided, being corrupted by these rotten people for too long. We need to come back to our temple now and cleanse your spirits. Your exercise here is over."

Hagoromo brushed her hand away with his own once again, stepping backwards and clenching his fists.

"I'm not leaving these guys here. You can kill me if you want, but I'd rather die than let these poor little things stay alone in this hell you created in this place."

Hinata was disgusted by the bloodthirsty smile she could feel her lips twisting into as she lowered her eyes to look at the children Kaguya's sons were protecting.

"Is that what you think too, Hamura?"

The white eyed teen's face remained impassive.

"Does it really matter what I think? You've already made your decision," came the calm reply from him, and although it could be considered as a mark of resignation, something in his voice was wrong... nearly threateningly so. No, strangely enough, it actually sounded more rebellious rather than indifferent.

Her smile became wider at that.

"That is true... fine, then. I will play this game of yours. Hagoromo," she moved her gaze to him, and Hinata noticed that the teen swallowed heavily while his chakra flow hastened. He was preparing for a strike, she could tell that much. "I'm giving you a gift, and a curse at the same time. You will be allowed to take two of these children to the Temple and to raise them in the way you find the most suitable." The purple eyes widened in shock and surprise as the young man loosened visibly, not believing his own luck while his brother's face, on the contrary, darkened at their mother's words.

"Thank you...! Thank you, mother! I swear, I won't fail you, I will prove that–"

"The rest of them will be executed."

The small smile that had appeared on his face at her previous line died off immediately as Hagoromo's eyes widened even more, filling with tears.

"No... no... you can't–"

"It's up to you to choose the ones that will die. The curse of their deaths will haunt you forever, Hagoromo. You will have to live with the consequences of your choice. Are you ready to do it? To stand up for your false ideals to this extent? Your other option is to leave them all here, on their own. Make your decision now."

He remained silent for a few seconds, but before he could reply, Hamura raised his arms – a few bones shot out of his hands, piercing the skulls of six children and killing them immediately, leaving only two screaming infants wrapped in the dirty towels and crying weakly as the others fell to the ground.

"Hamura! No...!"

"It's already done. You don't have to make this choice, brother," the white haired teen put his hand onto the other young man's shoulder, looking into Kaguya's eyes with a cold expression. "Mother said that they will be executed, but she never said that she will have to be the one to kill them. I've decided to make this choice instead of you. You said that it was a gift, and a curse, mother... well, I'm taking the curse. The gift is yours, brother," he bowed down, picking the babies and handing them to his twin. "Let's get out of there. This smoke isn't healthy for them. I hope it's settled now, mother," the white eyes met the similar ones of Kaguya, to which she nodded slowly much to Hinata's relief.

"Very well, then. We are going home now." Another rift opened, revealing a spacious, well lit marbel covered hall and leaving the humane hell behind the divine beauty.

As they walked through the long passages of the temple, Kaguya didn't really pay any attention to her sons, apparently lost in her thought, but Hinata could hear their quiet whispers.

"Why did you do this, Hamura...? You didn't have to...!"

"It's alright, brother. I didn't want you to bear this burden on your own. I can handle it on my own, don't worry about me. Your path is light, Hagoromo. Not darkness."

The brown haired man frowned, not replying anything for a few seconds before finally muttering,

"Why did you choose these two? Is it because they are the youngest ones?"

"Not really," came the equally as quiet, a bit reluctant reply. "It's because they are brothers, just like us. Can't you see their chakra?"

"O-Oh...! Yes, I see now!" Hagoromo whispered excitedly in a second, apparently checking it with his own dōjutsu.

"And besides, it's not fair that you can't have your own children just because you were more affected by the chakra of Shinju than me. This way, you'll be able to raise them as your own sons, and to bestow ninshū, as well as your power upon them as they grow up.

"Yes... yes, I suppose you're right, as always," she could hear him smiling, which made Hinata feel warmth for the first time during this strange vision from the past.

"How are you going to name them?" Hamura asked curiously, and this time Kaguya's head turned to the side slightly, indicating that she was actually listening to their conversation.

"Hm-m..." Hagoromo thought silently for a while, mumbling something illegible. "Ashura... and Indra."

She could feel Kaguya's heart skipping a bit, but then something even more weird happened. She heard the voice very similar to her own in her head,

 _You've seen enough. Wake up now. You are not allowed to know what happened next... for now._

Hinata screamed in the overwhelming panic, opening her eyes and sitting on the bed, panting heavily.

* * *

"Now then, all that remains here is to add a little more... would you please stop moving unless you want me to screw up this seal of yours?" Hinata cringed a bit, feeling the touch of Orochimaru's cold fingers on the soft burning skin of her shoulder.

"Sorry... I'm still not feeling well," she mumbled, lowering her eyes to the floor of his laboratory.

After seeing the weird vision, the young woman used her now upgraded ring to activate Naruto's Flying Thunder God jutsu and thus returned to the Tower, heading directly to Orochimaru's quarters as she felt the seal's restrains broken once again, and the searing pain in her neck and shoulder was too strong for her to simply ignore it until the morning.

The sannin, however, clearly didn't mind her visit seeing as he wasn't even asleep – she had no idea what he had been working on before her arrival, but knowing him, it had to be something very boring seeing how enthusiastic he was about helping her out as soon as possible. Usually he was much more wayward, and the last time her seal started going wild, she had to wait for a good hour until he finished his... whatever he had been doing back then.

Not that she minded his sudden cordiality, though. As confusing as the vision had been, it frightened her to no end, and considering that Sasuke had apparently left for a while due to some important reason, she needed someone to make a company and to help her.

Orochimaru suited for this role just perfectly.

"Interesting...," the sannin murmured, scratching the skin under the seal with a needle and touching it one more time.

"What? Is there something wrong?" Hinata asked worriedly, turning her head slightly.

"No, not really... or maybe, yes. It depends on the perspective, I suppose."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing important, don't worry about it. Say, this vision you mentioned... you said it was different from the previous ones about Sasuke-kun and Madara's past. Different how, exactly?"

She sighed deeply, a little afraid to give a straightforward answer – Orochimaru was aware of the fact that Hinata was the potential vessel chosen by the Rabbit Goddess for whatever reason she'd had in mind, and saying it as it was could make this pretty smart and calculative man become suspicious of her... but on the other hand, she was innocent. It wasn't like she was plotting something. What would she lose if she told him the truth?

"I... I was in Kaguya's body. I could hear, see, and feel the same things as she. I didn't control anything, though."

Hinata couldn't really see him as her Byakugan was deactivated at the moment and the snake master was behind her back, but the young woman heard him hemming, apparently thinking over what she had said.

"Was it about their fight? Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun and this Kaguya..."

"No," she shook her head quickly, though hesitating a little more, "it was about her children. The Sage of the Six Paths and his brother."

"Oh?" He touched the seal again, making the Uchiha wince. Was he really trying to fix it, or just experimenting with her body...? It was getting more and more painful with each second, and albeit Hinata had very high pain tolerance, it was becoming really annoying at this point.

"Yes," she continued, ignoring the pain. "In the beginning, I was wondering why am I seeing it. I mean... there was no Sasuke... Madara... or Indra. And it's supposed to be Indra's memories I'm seeing... it's his chakra, after all..."

The motion of Orochimaru's hand stopped, and for a second she thought that he even paused his breath.

"And?" the man said on the exhale, still not touching her.

"He was there... but he was an infant, just like Naruto... ugh, I mean Ashura. And, well... it seems like they aren't really the Sage's children. He... adopted them, in a way."

"Adopted them...?" Orochimaru remained quiet for a minute, returning to the work on her seal then. "Actually, that explains a lot."

"Huh?" She turned her head again, noticing the part of his sleeve as he was weaving some hand signs – probably to empower the Cursed Seal once again.

"Yes, when you think about it... I recall Sasuke saying that neither Indra or Ashura looked all that similar to the Sage himself. And besides... the fact that they didn't inherit the Rinnegan from him is strange. I have always wondered why it happened this way, because if that were how the genes worked, just downgrading the dōjutsu with each generation, both Sharingan and Byakugan would've been long extinct."

It had never crossed her mind, but it made sense now that he put it this way. Orochimaru was probably right... it was only logical.

"Which means that the Sage most likely decided to give each of them a piece of his power... which their children inherited normally, up to the latest generations. Such a shame," he sneered, suddenly making the kunoichi smile reflexively in response, "Sasuke is going to be pissed when we tell him that he's a descendant of a commoner, and not of the strongest man to ever live."

Hinata giggled, feeling the long awaited relief – the pain was gone now that Orochimaru had finished whatever manipulation he had been doing.

"I guess. But I don't think he cares about it at all. His thoughts have been lying completely elsewhere lately..." She put the sleeve of her kimono back on the hand, readjusting it and finally feeling the pleasant warmth again – something she really missed this night.

"Is there something bothering him?" asked the Sannin, turning away and coming close to the desk with various test tubes as she finally looked at him.

"A lot, I suppose. He's not very fond of many things that happened lately."

"Such as...?"

Hinata sighed, looking away from his nape.

"He's afraid that he can go crazy again should Kakashi's plan fail. And now that Naruto has restored his hand, he thinks that he has received a portion of Naruto's power, much like Madara had attained the power of the First in the past. I suppose he's just being a little paranoid."

Orochimaru finally turned to meet her eyes, and somehow she didn't like what she saw in the yellow irises. He looked way too concerned with what she had just said, and seemingly not in a good way.

"Whereas I'm pretty sure that Sasuke isn't the type to go crazy for no reason, he isn't the only one displeased with how everything goes, so that is understandable. Kakashi-kun's plan is very fragile, and it can be ruined very easily, which he fails to realize. He's become too arrogant and self assured; that never leads to any good. Trust me, I know it better than anyone else."

The quiet, unusually serious words of the sannin made Hinata feel cold and uneasy again. What was he implying? Had he figured out a crucial flaw in said plan, and the Sixth ignored his advise? No... it sounded too stupid for someone like their Hokage.  
Perhaps...

"Have you spoken with him about it yet? Kakashi, I mean," she asked carefully, watching the man's reaction closely.

He gave the young woman a sad grin.

"He is aware of my concerns. However, considering the past between us and all, he doesn't trust me enough to do what I suggest." The little white snake appeared out of his sleeve and wrapped around his arm, hissing loud enough to attract the man's attention for a second.

He smirked then, meeting Hinata's worried gaze again.

"You could try and help this situation, though. I'm sure he would listen if you were the one to approach him."

The Uchiha frowned. Of course, her relationship with Hatake could be called relatively good, and it was certainly better than that between him and Sasuke, but he knew how loyal she was to her husband. And if Sasuke was right in his suspicions about the Sixth, he... he was their enemy and vice versa.

Would he listen to his enemy's advise?

"Sure, I can try it if you say that it's important. I don't feel like sleeping anyway. What should I do?"

His smile was kind and friendly, probably overly so. Just on the brink of becoming suspicious...

"Just ask him to check the remnants' safety, and if he asks you how do you know about it, say that you promised not to tell anyone where did this come from. That's all. He will understand everything."

She frowned, feeling confused as she raised up from the fence.

"Alright... I will do it. Good night, Orochimaru."

He grinned, clearly satisfied with her answer.

"Good night. And thank you. Hopefully he will bother to listen this time. You might turn to be our only hope."

The kunoichi left the room, closing the door behind her back, and the sannin sat down onto the table, raising his head and looking at the ceiling.

"Check..." he hissed, and his body began trembling in the silent laughter.

No matter how much time passed, they weren't becoming any smarter. Outplaying them all was way too easy to his taste...

* * *

Hearing a soft knock on his door, Kakashi flinched, surprised by the unexpected late visitor. Not that he was really busy doing something important – actually, he felt pretty bored and wouldn't mind having a chat with literally anybody. Feeling sleepless for some reason unknown to himself, Hatake wanted to come back to his house back in Konoha now more than anything else, but that would be pointless without his lover being in there, and Shizune was currently busy helping Tsunade with something important in the hospital of the village.

In other words, he was completely on his own this night, and as per usual whenever he couldn't sleep, the shinobi decided to do some routine paper work, sitting in his cabinet in the Tower for hours by now and thinking, thinking, thinking... there were too many things on his mind, and that was probably why he couldn't sleep normally, especially when he had to sleep alone.

With everything set in motion, too much was at stake, and now that the man knew that every single decision of his led to deaths of people, he felt ashamed. Ashamed of the fact that he was willing to retire as soon as possible, allowing Naruto and Sasuke to take his position and to rule everything on their own. He didn't want them to bear the weight of this position... but eventually it would happen anyway, wouldn't it?  
That was a weak excuse for him, but he didn't have anything else.

He felt too week to keep playing his role. Ever since the war, the stress he'd been going through was too immense. He had never got a chance to rest...

"Enter," he sighed, and the door opened, letting in Hinata who looked unexpectedly bad.

Her hair was wild, the bags under the white eyes were too easy to notice, and she was wearing a mashed kimono that looked surprisingly vulgar for her style.

Was it even hers...?

"Hinata? What happened?" he gasped as his eyes widened while she came closer, looking pretty nervous.

No... way too nervous. Nearly like that shy Hyūga girl he still remembered from years ago.

"Um... nothing serious. I just... well, I woke up, and apparently Sasuke has gone somewhere... that's why I came here. I didn't feel like remaining in Konoha alone."

He raised his brow a bit, confused by her answer. They were never any close, why would she come to his office instead of visiting one of the other Akatsuki members he was friends with?

"You are never alone in Konoha, Hinata. It's your home, please, remember it."

The Uchiha nodded absently, studying the angle of his table.

Something was very wrong with her...

"Did you want to discuss something with me?" he suggested, peering at her searchingly and activating his Sharingan to check her chakra flow.

There was no genjutsu... then what on earth...?

"Yes... yes, actually, I do. But... I promised not to tell anybody about it... I'm not sure how to put it...," she paused, still not meeting his confused gaze.

"Well?" he asked after a long, oppressive pause.

"I... I think you should check the safety of the remnants," she finally uttered, still refusing to meet his gaze.

He nearly chocked at the suggestion that was unexpected to say the least.

The remnants... he had already forgotten about them by now. The arm of the jūbi that's been left unprotected in his dimension... with nobody alive being able to reach it aside from him, the Sixth had decided that it's protected well enough not to care about it for a while, and this matter had totally slipped out of his mind long ago.

But now...

His eyes widened in the horrifying and shocking realization.

There was now a person capable of reaching it. Someone who had awakened the ability to travel between dimensions, as well as had the access to the chakra of bijū...!

"You... you said Sasuke has gone somewhere, didn't you...?" he whispered, feeling as his hands began to shake while she swallowed.

"Yes... that's why I came here, to the Tower. That's what I said."

He nodded slowly, clenching his fists and activating his Mangekyō.

"Thank you, Hinata. Thank you for telling me. You... you probably have just saved us all."

She gave him a confused look as he raised up from his working place.

"Really...?" she drawled doubtfully in a quiet, unsure voice.

"Yes. Please, go to your room now. You've had an uneasy night... I will go... check it now."

The kunoichi seemed to be even more confused now, seeing how nervous he had become all of sudden, but then she shrugged indifferently and walked out of his office.

The space around the man twisted into a swirl the next second, and he landed onto the familiar stone pillar, immediately recognizing his former student's back a few yards ahead.

Right next to the wrenched arm of the statue...!

"Don't make a move, Sasuke!"

The Uchiha flinched, straightening his back and turning around.

"Kakashi... your duplicity is hardly surprising."

The gray haired man's eyes narrowed while every cell of his body was ready to react to an incoming attack.

"Duplicity? What are you talking about...?"

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you and Konoha ever again. And now here I am, 'caught red-handed'... is that the excuse you were going to use in order to exterminate the remains of my family?"

The pair of the identically looking Mangekyō eyes widened in surprise and confusion.

"What on earth are you talking about? Sasuke, I was told that you are here and what you're after. I can't let you do whatever you have on your mind. It's way too dangerous, to anyone. I will stop you right here." He took a battle stance, taking a kunai out of the holster on his leg.

The Uchiha opened his eyes, activating his own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

"Way too predictable... so be it, then."


	28. Inmate

**Sorry for the long silence, folks. I've been busy with my personal life which is now finally settled, so I'm back to writing as well as other internet activities. I won't be able to update as frequently as before from now on since I'm busy with said personal life and some other important stuff, but the breaks won't be as long as the last one for sure, so expect the pace around one chapter per one month. Rest assured that I'm not going to abandon this story or anything, it's near its climax anyway so that would be very stupid of me. :)**

 **Also to those who might be interested in reading some more stuff written by me. If you fancy Harry Potter universe, I've started another story while I was traveling this summer. It can be found in my profile here as well as on the other major fanfiction sites.**

 **And last but not least. I've cleaned all the previous chapters by deleting my replies to the old reviews, so don't worry if you noticed that the word count of this story has decreased. I'm also not going to write these walls of replies from now on since I find the PM-replying system far more useful and less annoying to some readers.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 28. Inmate**

Sasuke met the heavy gaze of his former teacher with a completely blank face which made Kakashi feel sort of a déjà vu — to the Hokage, it seemed nearly like that moment a few years ago when he had faced Pain in Konoha. Just like Nagato's puppet, the young man that was now standing in front of him was completely unreadable, nearly as if he was dead.

As horrible as it sounded, it wasn't all that far from the truth. Deep inside, within the insane storm of emotions the Uchiha was having a hard time suppressing at the moment, he was indeed feeling as if he was dying along with all of his dreams about peaceful life in the village of the Leaf. He couldn't quite distinguish what hurt him more, the fact that he had been fooled by Konoha once again or that all the plans they made with Hinata were now being demolished like a sand castle under a remorseless tidal wave.

Now he had no other choice but to kill the Sixth. Sasuke realized that in one way or another, he would have to convince everyone that they should choose a new leader for their international coalition. That would win him some time to find a way to enter Kaguya's realm and kill her... After that, he and Hinata would be able to simply leave Konoha for good. To everyone else, perhaps they could tell that they are going for a long trip around the world. The circumstances around Hinata's former clan hadn't let them finish their previous journey a few years ago, after all... And by the time Naruto would finally be able to see through his lie, when the truth about Kakashi's death would get revealed somehow, they would already be far, far away, in a place where nobody would ever be able to find them. Mayhap even in a different dimension...  
Yes, that sounded just perfect. Without the Sixth alive, nobody beside him would be able to travel between dimensions. The Uchiha clan would be perfectly safe.

"So," Kakashi gripped his kunai tighter, swallowing heavily. "What are you waiting for?"

Sasuke didn't reply at first, keeping peering at the gray haired man impassively, as if he was staring at something behind the shinobi through his body, or perhaps trying to look for something inside of him.  
The Uchiha wasn't sure himself.  
As enraged as he was feeling at the moment, something deep inside his soul was preventing the young ninja from killing the Hokage right away. He wasn't sure what exactly that was; perhaps he had just been corrupted by Naruto's silly philosophy way too much, yet still...

"Surely you do realize that I can end you any second now," he said quietly, not moving his eyes away for a split second.

Kakshi frowned a little.

"That's not quite the case, Sasuke. As you well know, just like you and Naruto still have your Six Paths chakra, so too do I retain the power Obito bestowed upon me. Which means that I'm not going down as easily as you think. But I guess we'll never know until you try."

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, weighting the man's words carefully for a few seconds before nearly gasping in the realization.

 _Of course... that sneaky bastard...!_

So that's what Hatake was counting on. If Sasuke attacked him now, he would most likely use Kamui phasing ability to appear physically outside this dimension, or, simply put, back in their world where Naruto would be able to immediately sense the chakra Kakashi had been infusing until now. That would give him away for sure, and it wasn't an option for Sasuke. The Hokage knew it for sure as well, obviously.

"Your plan won't work. I've left a limbo clone outside, it will kill you the instant you try to get out. "

It felt incredibly irritating, seeing Kakashi's expression changing into a tiny smile under the mask. Almost like back in the years when this man was still superior...

"Great analyses and prediction, as always. I expected no less from you. But on the other hand, even if your clone kills me over there, Naruto will still sense it. Which means... I suppose you do realize that neither of us can do anything at this point. Except... I could use my Kamui to throw you out of this dimension. That would win me enough time to take the statue's remnants away."

"Hardly possible and very unlike you to do something as risky. Not only you don't know if my reaction is faster than yours, but you also don't know for sure how many Limbo clones I can produce at the same time, and neither do you know for how long I can maintain this technique. You wouldn't go for something as reckless," reasoned Sasuke, beginning to feel ridiculous.

"Hm... True that. I wonder about both these factors. Makes me guessing if you have never told me about their specifics deliberately or not. But I think it is at this point safe to say that you also never trusted me at all, isn't it?"

Sasuke sneered mockingly.

"What do you think? As if I could ever expect anything good from Konoha. You were always but a bunch of backstabbing rats. I can see it now better than ever before."

With both of them being completely misled regarding the whole situation since the very beginning, Kakashi presumed that Sasuke was talking about Hinata, whereas the Uchiha meant the Hokage himself as well as his supposed plan to exterminate the rest of his family.

"Are you going to kill her after me, too? Sasuke... What are you doing?"

Of course, it could be said that just like the greatest tacticians, they were already fighting right now through exchanging invisible blows. But at the same time, it felt like a stalemate to both of them. They could keep talking for ages in their attempts to fool one another, Sasuke could say for sure. Kakashi was way too smart to be underestimated in any aspect, even though he was weak.

"Playing on my feelings for her won't get you anywhere, so don't even bother. I'm an Uchiha, remember? We were always mere tools for your pathetic village to use. What we think or feel is irrelevant."

Kakashi sighed heavily, shaking his head slightly.

"It must be just a bizarre bad dream... I'm so tired of all this. Yet still... I can't just give up. Naruto would never forgive me. And also Obito... Rin... Minato-sensei..."

Sasuke wasn't sure if this was another attempt to distract him or Kakashi wasn't completely alright mentally. With his left eyelid twitching at the mention of his friend, Sasuke grinned maniacally at the apparent (from the Uchiha's point of view) taunt.

"Naruto will join all of you in the afterlife shortly anyway, so you could spare me some time by letting me kill you swiftly."

Surely he would never bring himself to attack Naruto again unless it would be absolutely necessary. But he couldn't simply ignore what seemed like mockingly pompous lines coming from Hatake.

Kakashi's face darkened.

"Like I said, I can't allow this to happen. I propose a solution for you, though."

Sasuke's brow cocked skeptically.

"Oh? Interesting. And what would that be?"

"Fight me. Without any dirty tricks, without Naruto, without anyone or anything else interfering. We're both great liars, aren't we? Well, perhaps during our final meeting we could give it a shot and be sincere with each other for once?"

The Uchiha frowned, thinking over the strangely noble suggestion for a few seconds.

"That's... Fine by me."

The burst of light blue chakra came out of Kakashi's body the next second, coating him completely and raising the man up in the air, forming the familiar ribcage.

"Oh... So you can still use this? Impressive." Forming his own Perfect Susanoo, Sasuke closed his left eye, demonstrating his unwillingness to use his Rinnegan, attempting to make it a fair fight, and stared at the man expectingly. "Bring it on."

The two chakra leviathans froze in front of each other for a moment before clinching the giant swords.

"I'm surprised. You actually haven't lied this time!" Sasuke grinned as his chakra avatar blocked another blow, launching an attack against the other Susanoo's head.

"I could say the same to you. It must have been a torture, living in the village you hate this much for years, plotting against all of us at the same time."

The purple chakra giant flew up, flowing mid air.

"No, actually it was pretty pleasant up to the moment when I saw your true face."

"My true face...?" Kakashi frowned, blocking a strike that made the armor on his Susanoo's right hand give a crack. "What are you talking about?" Dodging another crushing blow by jumping backwards, Hatake flew up as well, trying to catch his breath while he had a chance to.

Despite his mastery when it came to utilizing Obito's power, it still drained him out pretty fast. He had to come up with a good plan as soon as possible if he wanted to survive this fight...

"Hn. So you want to know what gave your pathetic plan away?" Launching an Enton arrow at his adversary, which made his Susanoo's chest start burning with black flames right away, draining even more chakra from Kakashi, Sasuke smirked triumphantly. "Aside from the fact that I always felt that duplicity of yours, I knew that this place was a trap. A trap meant to be your excuse for executing me and the rest of my clan. Too bad I came here before finding the rest of them. Right?"

Kakashi's eyes widened as he breathed heavily.

"What—are you out of your mind, Sasuke?"

This time, the Uchiha just eyed him indifferently as if all of his feelings concerning this man and Konoha were now gone completely.

"You're still trying this? Why? Feeling death closing in, huh? Are you scared, Kakashi?"

The cerulean Susanoo flew a bit backwards, slowly beginning to melt under the hot black fire while its owner stared at his former student in shock and incomprehension.

"It's not... Wait. No—it can't be! Sasuke... Fine! You win. Just... Let me ask you one last thing." The chakra around his body disappeared as well as the omnivorous flames, and the men fell onto his knees on the stone platform down below, panting.  
A second later, Sasuke appeared next to him, gripping the man's hair and pulling his head up to meet his weakening gaze.

"Despite all the shit you fed me with, I'm feeling very generous today for some reason. Shoot it."

"Tell me—aside from—from the trap... Why... What did you come—come here—for?"

The Uchiha snorted contemptuously.

"Why would you need to know? All you care about is getting rid of me and my clan, isn't it?"

A thin trickle of blood flowed down Hatake's chin as his eyes widened as he heard the confirmation of his assumption.

"P-please—just tell me," his voice was becoming more and more quiet, and then the man realized that Sasuke was draining out the remains of his chakra with the Rinnegan's Preta Path.

"Fine. It's over for you anyway, so I'll tell you." He bowed his head closer to the Hokage's ear, muttering, "I'm going keep the statue's arm for a while. At some point, soon enough, I will use it to seal the chakra I received from Naruto into it. Then I will seal whatever comes as the result inside myself. Hidan knows the way to connect with the realm where Kaguya's soul resides. I will go there."

The Sixth closed his eyes, feeling the upcoming tears of desperation and the crushing pain.

"So... You want to revive her again, don't you? Is this your ultimate goal? You want to let her finish the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

Sasuke frowned, loosening his grip a little which made the wet gray hair slip out of his finger. Kakashi fell down, coughing with blood and trying to catch his breath again.

"Infinite Tsukuyomi? What the fuck are you talking about? Are you mad?" The gray haired shinobi found the energy to look up at the young man, staring at him in disbelief.

"Then what—?"

"I intend to destroy Kaguya's very being. Seeing as you have carelessly left this arm lying here, clearly there is still a way for her to return which she clearly intends to do through possessing Hinata's body. I won't let her take my wife away from me. Not her, not you, and neither anybody else will do it."

"What—? Sasuke, this is insane! You can't defeat Kaguya on your own, it is absolutely—"

"Impossible? Not for me. You've never loved anyone, have you, Kakashi? And neither have you had any real dedication to achieve something really important in your life. Everything you've done so far, you always told yourself that you do it for someone or something, because they wanted you to, asked you to, whereas in reality you merely intended to egoistically atone for your own sins in your own eyes. You can never understand how far can one go for those he loves. And I love my family, as well as this world. I will not allow anyone or anything to destroy it. I shall sacrifice everything that is necessary for it, and my life is no exception. I never really cared about myself, after all." Sasuke's eyes narrowed as the slightest suspicion and doubt pinched him when he saw Kakashi sniffle, falling down on his elbows and beginning to shake.

"I'm—Sasuke—I—I'm—"

"Enough of this."

"Wait—!" The Uchiha's sword stopped an inch away from the man's neck. The younger shinobi frowned. "Before you finish me off—please—I'm begging you... Just read my memories. Read everything, and maybe then—maybe then you will see... I am—" Before he knew, the raven haired man gripped his neck tightly, using another of his left eye's abilities on the dying man.

It was a matter of seconds before Sasuke's face twisted in complete shock and he let Kakashi go, falling down on his butt as if he was was hit under his knees by a very heavy mace.

"No... This can't be real."

As it turned, Kakashi had never really lied to him. He had been sincere since the very beginning, and the only reason why he was here right now was...

A mere coincidence. An awkward, ridiculous conjunction of events. He had never intended to kill him or Hinata, and neither did he want to control them. Instead, he mistook Hinata's words for her betraying her husband who had seemingly wanted to go down Madara's road!

How ridiculous and ironic...

"I—Kakshi..."

"It's okay...," the man whispered huskily, making the Uchiha flinch. "I guess letting me die now is the only way, really. Because in either case, I wouldn't be able to—to just let you proceed—with your plan..."

"No. Don't be ridiculous, you are not dying."

The Sixth squeezed out a weak smile.

"I—I can hardly breath by now. Only Sakura or Naruto would be able to save me, but you won't risk your plan to carry me to them."

"You're both right and wrong. I won't take you to them, that's correct. However..."

Kakashi flinched as his eyes widened in surprise and awe — his wounds were gone in a moment, and also all of sudden, his chakra reserves became nearly intact once again. It was as if...

As if they hadn't fought at all...!

But before the man could react, he felt Sasuke's palm slam into his forehead, sealing his Sharingan away.

"Perhaps grew to have a soft spot thanks to Hinata... But unlike you, I have lied."

Cursing quietly, the Hokage raised up on his still slightly shaking legs, meeting Sasuke's slightly conflicted gaze.

"I see... a genjutsu. When—?"

"It doesn't matter. You've seen what my Rinnegan is capable of, and just like many times before, I simply overestimated your intelligence. You should have known that you are nothing next this power, especially compared to the tailed beasts." Hatake now realized how right his former student was — Sasuke nearly never used genjutsu, so he had forgotten about that ability of his.  
The ability that allowed his teammate to control all the tailed beasts with a mere glance...

"Well, it seems you really have overestimated me a lot. So what happens now?"

The Uchiha sighed, taking his sword back into its scabbard.

"Damn you, Kakashi... it would have been much easier should I have ignored your last request. Now that I have your memories, I should be able to maintain order in Akatsuki, at least for a while. I'll probably let Orochimaru take the formal leadership just like you have planned for him in case if something happens to you. With him being a more less neutral figure, I don't think anybody will object. Naruto will become Hokage while you're absent. The idiot had been craving to get into your office for too long anyway. I think he feels pretty damn insecure since his peer Gaara is a Kage for years by now."

Kakashi sighed sadly as well.

"I see. I guess trying to convince you to stop with this plan is pointless, isn't it?"

The young man nodded seriously.

"It is. There is nothing you can do."

"And what about me?"

Sasuke's lips curved into a small grin.

"I'll keep you imprisoned with your power sealed away until I finish Kaguya off. For everyone else, you'll be missing in action. Hopefully you don't mind Hinata's cooking. I'll try to make it as comfortable as possible for you... consider this my way of saying 'sorry'."

Kakashi smirked, shaking his head.

"I'll do my best to try to find a way to break out and stop you, you know."

The younger man shrugged indifferently.

"Feel free to do so. With your eye power sealed away, there is no way you can do that."

"We'll see."

Sasuke sighed, letting out a short laughter.

"Maybe. I might as well die soon enough, as well as the rest of the world. In this case, you'll starve to death. Not quite the way you always wanted to die, is it?"

Kakashi lowered the gray haired head, closing his eyes.

"Times change... you are not as confident as ever."

"I've never been confident to begin with. You just never really understood me."

The dimensional rift opened, and Kakashi nearly tripped when the Uchiha gripped the collar of his west, pulling the exhausted man inside of his prison.

At this point, he could only pray for his teammate's desperate plan to work out.

* * *

She was sitting on the windowsill of their room in the Tower, biting her lips to blood and hugging her knees tightly, feeling so nervous as she hadn't felt in a very long time.

It seemed to Hinata like she had done something irreversible. After analyzing the events of the night, she now realized that the Sixth clearly miscomprehended her words in some twisted way, and it was only half an hour after that when she had realized that it had something to do with where Sasuke went this night. Or, simply put, that Orochimaru had set up something nasty for both of them. And whereas she wanted to know why the sannin did that, the young woman couldn't even bring herself to think straight with both Sasuke and Kakashi being absent for so long by this moment.

She hated feeling completely helpless and useless more than anything else in her life. It was pushing her back into that state she'd been living in until she had met her true love... It was killing her right now, feeling her former self overwhelm her whole being once again. Especially when the kunoichi had already started to believe that she had destroyed Hyūga Hinata completely, with only Uchiha Hinata remaining alive.

Fortunately enough, her torture didn't last much longer. When she was already about to start sobbing out of desperation and fear, the space next to her split up in the very familiar way, letting her beloved man step into the not very spacious, comfy room they considered their home.

"Sasuke!" She gasped, jumping off the sill and rushing towards the man, hugging him as tightly as possible. "I—I—!"

"Shh. It's okay, everything is alright," he whispered, hugging her as well and caressing her long black hair.

"Where were you? I think I did something horrible, Sasuke... I—"

"Keep quiet for now. You did nothing wrong. It was all Kakashi's fault. And partly mine, too," he added reluctantly.

"But—"

"Listen now," he said a bit louder, backing off a little and meeting her tear stained white eyes in all seriousness. "Tell me, what you said to Kakashi about Orochimaru, is that completely true? Is this what really happened?"

Her eyes widened, and the kunoichi gasped in the belated realization.

"You—you have killed him—?"

"No, I haven't. Answer my question now, it is very important."

She tried to focus and calm down her shaking cold limbs, nodding quickly.

"Y-yes, it's true. Sasuke... What's going on? Please, tell me..."

His eyes narrowed suspiciously as the man looked towards the door to their room.

"Can you tell me if he's still here in the Tower or not?"

Hinata nodded slowly, activating her Byakugan and scanning through the building.

"Yes, he is. He's still down in his laboratory, and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere soon. Do you—"

"Let's go."

He gripped her waist tighter and used Amenotejikara to teleport both of them to the sannin's lair.

Like the kunoichi said, he was still there, sitting at his working place and drawing some seals on the chakra sensitive paper that was scattered all over his table.

"Oh, you have returned already... that was pretty fast," said the older ninja casually, not looking at either of them and smiling joyfully.

"You have a lot to explain if you don't want me to destroy you right now," snapped Sasuke, not letting go of Hinata much to her appreciation. The kunoichi wasn't feeling well, and the warmth of his hand felt relaxing.

"Haven't you figured it out yourself yet? My, I'm disappointed, Sasuke-kun. It's so easy, really." The yellow eyes of the snake master raised up to meet all the three dōjutsu that were peering at him at the same time. "With Kakashi-kun in charge, you wouldn't be able to do what you intend to do regarding Hidan's cult, it should be obvious given how close he's been watching you lately. That's why I took the liberty of getting rid of him when I saw a perfect opportunity to do that. Hopefully you don't mind, but then again, knowing you, I figured that you would probably appreciate it."

Sasuke paled, giving a quick glance to Hinata who frowned at the sannin's words suspiciously. She had no idea what Sasuke really planned regarding Hidan's home village, at least not the details for sure.

"What is he talking about...?" She whispered, looking at him questioningly.

"The way to save you from Kaguya and Toneri I came up with."

The young woman frowned as he looked at her, meeting his mismatching eyes and pursing her lips.

"You never told me anything about that."

"I was going to tell you today. I needed to confirm something beforehand, which is why I have left this night. I didn't want you to be worried."

"I would be worried anyway," she pushed him away slightly, crossing her arms on her chest and looking at her husband reprovingly, "Where did you go? Tell me now."

The young man sighed in defeat, closing his eyes.

"I went to the place where we fought Obito back during the war. I was looking for the remains of the statue he and Madara used to seal the tailed beasts. I intend to use its remaining chakra to seal Kaguya's spirit away eventually so that she won't be able to possess you."

"And why did you not tell me about it?"

Sasuke shrugged, looking away a bit shamefully.

"I was afraid that this chakra—the statue—it could affect you somehow. It's Kaguya's shell, after all."

"What?" She stared at the young man, appearing hurt by his words. "So you don't trust me, or what? Did you think that I would steal it or something like that?"

"No—no! Obviously not! I—"

"Then what, Sasuke? What was your reasoning for hiding it from me?"

He paled, feeling the drop of sweat rolling down his neck. She really cornered him this time, the man realized then. He couldn't lie anymore.  
Ignoring Orochimaru's amused grin, he sighed, lowering his head.

"I intend to face Kaguya on my own once again. And this time, I'll destroy her. But you won't follow me into her lair."

Feeling enraged at his last sentence, Hinata lowered her hands and clenched her fists to the point where her red colored nails dug into the skin of her palms.  
She wouldn't tell him that, for she was mad at Sasuke, but it also felt relieving to feel this kind of emotions again compared to the pathetic state she had found herself in just a few minutes ago. Finally she was herself again.

"What? And why is that?" She scoffed, staring at him daringly. "Are you implying that I'm too weak?"

"It should be obvious. She wants to possess your body. There is no way you're getting close to her spirit period."

The kunoichi bit her lip, thinking for a few seconds before replying,

"In other words, you wanted to go for a suicide mission and leave me completely clueless?"

"Suicide? Please. So little faith in me, I'm—"

"You're an idiot!" He frowned and the smile left his lips as soon as it appeared when the Uchiha saw his wife's eyes getting moist. "Don't you care about my feelings one bit?" She asked in a slightly shaky voice, peering at the floor under their feet.

"I do." He came closer to her, touching her chin and making her look into his eyes reluctantly. "But I care about your life much more. I believe that this is the only way to save you, and I'll do all that is necessary for that."

She kept looking at him for a good minute, thinking rapidly over his words before opening her mouth again,

"We will discuss it in private later," she finally uttered, sending a barely notable nod at Orochimaru. "This is not over, don't you dare to think so."

"I could leave you two here for a while, if you want."

"No!" They barked simultaneously, glancing at each other and blushing slightly. "Stay," said Sasuke, "I want to ask you a few questions, and we also need to discuss our plan regarding the upcoming events," the Uchiha sat down on the table with various test tubes and leaned against the rack that was next to it.

"Well, I'm listening to your suggestions. After all, you are in charge from now on, Sasuke-kun," the sannin smirked satisfiedly, putting the parer covered with different seals away and crossing his thin white fingers in front of his face.

The Uchiha frowned, thinking carefully over his words — he wouldn't want to provoke his former sensei now that the old man clearly believed that he had managed to fool them all.

"That's not quite the case. In fact, according to Kakashi's memories I attained, you are to lead Akatsuki should something happen to him."

"And what actually happened to him, if you don't mind me asking? Sorry, I'm just overly curious about that," his devilish grin sent shivers down Hinata's spine, making her forget that she was angry at Sasuke and come closer to her husband reflectively, sitting down next to the young man.

"I'm going to keep him imprisoned until we settle everything here. You were right; he would be more of an obstacle rather than an asset in this mission. I haven't killed him, though, if that's the subject of your curiosity. When we are done, I'll set him free."

The sannin grinned, nodding approvingly.

"Hopefully the place you're going to keep him at is comfortable enough. Even though Naruto-kun will finally get to become the Seventh Hokage now, given all the circumstances, I don't think it would be polite to make the conditions of life of the Sixth anything less than decent. After all, he did a pretty great job so far."

"I'm aware of that. But what we need to do now is not to screw everything until I'll be able to set him free. Which is why...," Sasuke turned his head slightly to give Hinata a short glance which made her frown, "We need to act as quickly as possible. According to my calculations, it will take about a month for everything to stabilize with everyone moving on past the fact that Kakashi is gone and for you and Naruto to take your new roles. Until then, our hands are basically tied. However, we could make some preparations so that when the time is right, we don't have anything to slow us down."

Orochimaru nodded and his smile finally vanished, much to Sasuke's relief — it irritated him more and more with each passing moment.

"Indeed. The lunar eclipse is approximately six weeks away according my calculations, though. We are pretty short on time if you don't want to risk anything."

Hinata felt her heart skip a beat at the older shinobi's words.

Six weeks. Merely in six weeks she could get done for. As well as the rest of their world...

The young woman flinched, suppressing her body's urge to start shaking and thanking Sasuke silently for hugging her the next second, clenching his forearm tightly. All of her anger was gone by now — the kunoichi had realized that as stubborn as he was, her husband always wanted best for her. She couldn't blame him for being himself and for loving her much more than she deserved.

That would be too selfish of her.

"That only means that we'll get roughly two weeks to find the temple of Jashin's cultists, as well as a way for me to reach Kaguya. Hinata," he looked at her, and the warmth and love in his eyes made the kunoichi realize once again how foolish she had been to blame him before. "I will allow you to follow me up to the temple. But you, as well as everyone else... You guys will stay out of it when we come there. This is my fight, and I advise you not to force me to waste my power on you to make you stay aside. I will need all the energy I can gather to face her."

"Well then, that is fine by me," said Orochimaru, rubbing his hands and grinning in amusement. "I'd also want to suggest not taking too many people with us. Us three is more than fine, don't you think so?"

"No," snapped Sasuke, nearly making the sannin frown at the quick retort. "Hidan will come as well, naturally. I'm also thinking about a sensory type we should grab along, because Naruto is clearly not an option here for obvious reasons beside him being busy as the next Hokage."

"I could just revive someone with Edo Tensei, you know," for a monent, Hinata felt some weird suspicion towards Orochimaru. Why was he so willing not to let anyone else go with them?

But then Sasuke's reply made her forget about her concerns the next second,

"I will need you to revive someone else. And raising up an army of dead would draw too much of unnecessary attention. Naruto would sense such amount of chakra concentrated in one place for sure."

The yellow eyes of the Sannin narrowed as he let out a freaky chuckle.

"Oh? I figured you would need some more power to face Kaguya, but unfortunately I won't be able to bring the Sage of the Six Paths back into this world. Or perhaps you have someone less vulgar on your mind?"

Sasuke smirked.

"Yeah. I do. But that's a discussion for another time. Don't worry, it's nothing you can't do anyway."

Orochimaru gave him a calculating look before saying,

"Well, that's nice to know that you have a plan with everything considered. What sensory type would you like to take along, then? I suppose Karin fits for this role perfectly, don't you think so? She's also a medic which makes her even more useful to us."

To both the Sannin's and Hinata's surprise, Sasuke shook his head nearly instantly.

"No. Aside from the fact that I really doubt we will need a medic, in case if she joins us, Yutaka would tag along for sure, and I don't want him to get involved in this in any way. Should something nasty happen to me, he will be the last remaining confirmed Uchiha survivor. Our clan must not get extinguished no matter what."

Hinata closed her eyes, hugging the young shinobi tightly and trying not to think about that possibility he had just mentioned. It also made her want to proceed with that insane idea that came to her mind a few minutes ago...

But she still didn't know how to tell him about that.

"Well, that leaves us with nobody trustworthy to choose. You made me feel curious once again. Spill it already, Sasuke-kun."

"I want Hinata's teammates, Kiba and Shino, to join us in this mission. Together with Hinata herself, they will make a perfect sensory unit. We'll be able to conceal our chakra with them watching the space around us, and thus slip inside the village unnoticed to both the inhabitants and Naruto, too." He looked at her, giving his wife a tiny smile as she nearly gasped in awe at his words.

"That's... Sasuke, thank you! Thank you so much! This is such a great idea!" She yelped, kissing him and nearly jumping on her spot in joy.

She hadn't been on a mission with her teammates in years, and truth to be told, sometimes she missed them quite a lot. And although Kurenai had long retired from her ninja duty, it so happened that she was the one Hinata contacted the most whenever she visited Konoha, so it didn't feel that disappointing that the older woman wouldn't come along this time. It was still going to be wonderful!

Orochimaru gazed at Sasuke skeptically, but he didn't comment on the Uchiha's decision, saying casually instead,

"So... Hinata-chan, you, me, Hidan, Kiba and Shino. That makes six of us... that's an unusually big and notable unit. Are you sure?"

"Yeah. It's not like this lineup has any weak spots with me as its firepower and Team Eight as our cover."

The Sannin sneered, drawling,

"Oh, really? And what about Hidan? Don't you consider him a weak spot?" Sasuke frowned, rolling his eyes.

"Please. I'll just put him under a strong genjutsu and everything will be fine. This clown is not going to ruin my plan for sure. And when we get there, I'll end his existence for good. The immortal body is not going to help him if I rip his soul out of it, don't you think so?"

The sannin smirked joyfully. It amused him to no end whenever the good old personality of his former student popped out. It made him feel both nostalgic and a bit proud — after all, Orochimaru was the one to had cultivated these naughty qualities in Sasuke years ago.

"Sounds good. Well then, let's say we have arrived there and you managed to get into Kaguya's realm. What comes next?"

Sasuke thought for a few seconds before replying, ignoring Hinata's quiet groan at the sannin's words,

"You and Team Eight are to guard the entrance, whatever it is, until I get back. And if I don't... I'll make sure to let you know that you should get out of there. But before that, you would have to seal the place. No matter what happens, she must not be allowed to come back into this world, no matter the form. So make sure to take care of it."

"You really are that dedicated, aren't you? Well then, that's fine by me. You should go and discuss everything in private now, Sasuke-kun. I'm too old for all the sentimental talk, witnessing it would be the same as suffering a toothache to me, so kindly move your pretty bums out of my laboratory, both of you."

Hinata giggled quietly while Sasuke snorted, teleporting them back to their room.

"You can't deny that he's charming, even though creepy," said the young woman, sitting down to their bed and looking at her husband who crossed his hands behind his back and came close to the window, looking at the street behind and appearing fairly troubled.

"Yeah...," he said detachedly, not looking at her. "Well then, I take it you are going to make me change my mind now."

She peered at the shinobi for a few seconds thoughtfully, not hurrying to give him an answer.

Of course, Sasuke's decision could hardly be changed now that he had made it. Hinata knew it for sure after all the years she had spent with him — trying to do that would be but a waste of their time and energy, and she didn't want that, of course.

After all, she knew that it was inevitable. They were born to be ninja; to be ready to die any second. They existed not to love, but to kill or be killed. All of her illusions and dreams about a peaceful romantic life were long go — the kunoichi was no longer the foolish teenage girl who focused on her love interest and delusions more than on her duty and training.

No, she realized that he was right. As a ninja, as the head to their clan and as her husband, he was completely and undeniably right in his reasoning. And it made her feel proud for him and for their family. And also happy for herself — most women in their world could only dream for such a noble and strong man to love them.

But at the same time... he had changed her a lot, too. And although some things would always remain the same as this night had shown, Hinata wanted to be a bit selfish this time. Just a little bit... it wouldn't hurt anyone, would it?

"No. That is not my intention."

He glanced at her in surprise over his shoulder.

"Then what...?"

She smiled, blushing slightly yet not moving her eyes away.

"Sasuke, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I do believe in you, and I sincerely believe that your chances against Kaguya are high enough. Otherwise you wouldn't go for it, because that's what you always do — come up with the best possible plan before acting," his warm, relieved smile made her heart beat faster, but at the same time, it could be because she was afraid of his possible reaction to what she was going to say next. She wasn't sure.

"Thank you, Hinata. I—"

"I haven't finished," he stopped, looking at her with a baffled expression. "I... You said it yourself, it is possible that you're not coming back."

He frowned, nodding slowly.

"It is. Not likely, but still very possible."

She nodded as well, trying to get a hold of herself.

"Which is why I have a request for you. You might as well consider it my condition of agreement to your plan."

He looked completely confused now, yet still the young man nodded again.

"I'm listening."

Hinata took a deep breath, looking straight into his eyes before finally uttering,

"In case if you won't return, I'm not going to marry anyone else. Which means that I would need someone to spend my time with for the rest of my life."

Sasuke paled. He was finally getting it.

"You—"

"I want a child from you."

* * *

 **I'm not going to reply to every review here, but I think that one specific guy really wants me to answer a few of his questions seeing as he/she wrote a few reviews to the last chapter. Or perhaps it were a few people rather than a single person? I'm not sure, but oh well, no matter. Here are my answers:**

 **Q: Have you watched the filler arc about Kaguya and her children?**

 **A: Yes, I have, but I don't consider filler episodes canon even though I do take some ideas I consider good from them sometimes.**

 **Q: Will Hinata get pregnant in this story?**

 **A: Yes, she will, but I won't tell you when and how, it would be a big spoiler.**

 **Q: Will Kaguya take over Hinata's body?**

 **A: Just wait and see, I can't tell you now. Sasuke's meeting with Kaguya will answer a lot of questions, though.**

 **Q: Will Hinata let Kaguya take over to save Sasuke from getting killed?**

 **A: That's not what is going to happen, but your guess is relatively close.**

 **Q: Do you have author's block?**

 **A: No, I don't, I just didn't have the time to write.**

 **Q: What do you think abou the idea of Jashin being Hamura's daughter and the founder of the Hyuga clan?**

 **A: Interesting, but that's not what is going to happen in this story. Jashin is Kaguya, it is absolutely necessary to wrap all the plot lines I created so far.**

 **That's it for tonight. See you next time!**


	29. The Decoy

**Chapter 29. The Decoy**

The blond ninja dressed in bright orange pants, old sandals, neat black shirt and long white coat with red kanji on its back watched silently as Tsunade came close to the iron railing and looked down upon the immense crowd that surrounded the Hokage Residence in Konoha, raising her hand and waving in a greeting to all the people that were staring quietly at the top of the massive crimson building – most of the Leaf's inhabitants felt conflicted today as they were unsure if it was really a celebration or rather a mourning, and so was Uzumaki Naruto who certainly hadn't imagined this day, the day he had been waiting for throughout his entire life, to be like _this_.

The Sixth Hokage had been announced to be missing four weeks ago. And even he, being the most powerful sensory type ninja in the world... No matter how hard the jinchūriki tried to locate his former sensei, it was futile. He didn't feel him, and Naruto wasn't a naive man despite all the rumors about his kind and careless nature. He realized that it could only mean one thing and nothing else.

Hatake Kakashi was dead.

It was a mystery to all of them how it had happened, and as surprising as it was, they had absolutely no clue on the matter. Together with Sasuke, they had scouted all the other dimensions available to his Rinnegan's technique, and they had found absolutely nothing. No trace of the gray haired man whatsoever.

He had simply disappeared, and it was far more troubling to those who were involved in the conspiracy of the Akatsuki than to the commoners Naruto was now looking at distantly, absorbed by depressing thoughts that had been consuming him for weeks by now.

As tragic as it was, his sensei's presumed demise wasn't what made Naruto feel so bad lately, no. There was also something off with Sasuke... He couldn't quite explain it, at least not yet. Of course, all of them felt searing pain because of what happened to Kakashi, but his friend, on the other hand...  
Thanks to Kurama, Naruto was able to feel negative emotions in anyone. And ever since that day when Kakashi had disappeared, Sasuke had been like an emotional abyss to him. Of course, it couldn't be noticed by anyone else as the Uchiha was a perfect ninja who always hid his true emotions and feelings flawlessly, not showing them to anyone – probably not even to Hinata. But thanks to his extraordinary sensory abilities, Naruto knew that something really dark was torturing Sasuke's heart nowadays. And no matter how hard the blond pushed, the Uchiha refused to talk about it, pretending to be perfectly fine.

Did Sasuke feel so bad because of the Sixth's death? Or was it something else, something far more awful and devastating that he didn't want to share with them?

Naruto didn't know, and he realized that he wouldn't be able to find out on his own. Talking to Hinata most likely wouldn't help the case either – of course, the young jinchūriki knew her well enough not to hope for Sasuke's wife to give the Uchiha's secrets away, but that wasn't the real reason why he believed that it would be pointless.

He didn't need to approach her to feel the same feelings in her heart as he felt in Sasuke's.

All that put together, as well as the fact that Sasuke, Hinata and their friends were going to that postponed long term mission today right after the ceremony, made Naruto wish for those times of the Fourth Great Ninja War to return. Everything was so much simpler back then... And now their lives were turning upside down.

How did they managed to miss the moment when everything began to crumble...?

The man frowned.  
Being an adult totally sucked.

"The Inauguration ceremony of the Seventh Hokage shall now begin. This ceremony shall be hosted by the Fifth Hokage, I, Senju Tsunade. Thank all of you for your attendance." She turned her head to look at him, making Naruto snap his head and gaze at the old kunoichi with a deadpanned face which made him resemble his late father, Minato Namikaze, quite a lot.

"Now, let's have him step up onto the stage." He strode forward and came close to the railing, still feeling too lost to even think about enjoying this fateful and so long awaited moment of glory.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the man who will take my place as the Seventh Hokage. Uzumaki Naruto!" The crowd roared cheerfully, welcoming their new leader who waved his hand at them, squeezing out a polite smile while trying desperately to find the three out of four of his closest friends among thousands of people below.  
They were still there, he could sense their presence for sure...  
He gritted his teeth.

Just where...?

"Thank you, everyone!" The blond shouted out cheerfully as a gust of chilly wind made his brand new white cloak flutter behind his back.

When he was finally able to turn around to meet the warm brown eyes of the smiling Fifth Hokage, Naruto gasped in surprise.

They were all there now, standing just next to Tsunade. Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura and Shikamaru, smiling at him and applauding just like everyone else in the village. Hanabi was standing alongside the five of them, too, looking far more happy than evryone else – she wasn't aware of how bad the current situation was, after all, even though she probably suspected that something was wrong. She was pretty shrewd, yet still Naruto wanted his future wife to stay oblivious to all of it, at least for now. There was nothing she could do to help them anyway...

The Uzumaki's lips curved into a weak smile as he met Sasuke's eyes. He was grinning at his friend, and for once he seemed to look genuinely happy. Was that a good sign...? Or...

"I didn't expect you guys to be here!" Naruto rushed towards them, unable to hold back a smirk despite the pretty gloomy mood. "I'm glad you've come!"

Sakura sighed, rolling her jade green eyes in pretentious annoyance.

"Did you seriously assume that we would miss the most important day of your life, you idiot? Up to date, I mean," she correcter herself quickly, giving Hanabi a short glance which made the Hyūga kunoichi smirk in return.

"It's okay. It was always his dream, after all. Right, Naruto?" The Hyūga came close to the blond and kissed him softly on the lips, making the man thank his brown haired lover silently for giving him the glimpse of warmth he needed so much nowadays.

"Yeah, that's one weird dream – to crave wasting all of your days and nights on boring paperwork," said Sasuke casually, making Naruto give his friend a grin in return while Hanabi turned around in his hands to look at the Uchiha.

"Hey, haven't you wanted to become a Hokage before, too?" asked Naruto, regretting asking this question before he even finished the sentence – this time, the sadness in the Uchiha's eyes was just _too_ obvious and uncovered.

"I will never become one anyway," said the man after a short pause. "Besides, now I know that it was a foolish idea."

"Why is that?" asked Naruto quietly. It was easy to take his tone for an offended one, but Sasuke knew him too well to think so. That's why he simply looked away and sneered.

"By seeing how sad you dumb ass are at the moment, obviously," the blond decided not to push, although he knew that Sasuke realized that this wasn't really the part of his statement Naruto was referring to in his question.

"Damn right, brat. This is the shittiest job in the world. Thankfully I won't have to spend more of my precious time on that," groused Tsunade, walking toward the stairs that led out of the roof. "You have one hour, Naruto."

"Alright, granny!" He waved his hand at her back, scratching his nape the next second and turning to his friends. "I take it you're leaving soon, huh? Too bad I can't come along now," He put his hands into the pockets of his pants, feeling way too uncomfortable for the leader of the strongest ninja settlement in the world.

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, hugging Hinata's waist, which made her lean against his shoulder, and although Naruto couldn't see her face because of the mask she was wearing whenever she was in Konoha, he sensed the strong feeling of affection and love coming from her, which made him feel at least a little bit relieved.  
It seemed that whatever was going on with the two of them didn't concern their relationship. They still looked as happy together as ever.

"Won't you be staying for the celebration tonight? Uncle Bee brought some... ugh...," he glanced anxiously down at Hanabi who seemed to stiffen slightly as he hugged her from behind,"...Stuff, you know."

"Don't tell me you're gonna get wasted again, Naruto!" groaned Sakura, slapping her face. "You two are absolutely impossible!"

"I'm glad I'm not included into the list of 'impossible' ones, especially given that we usually do it together." Shikamaru smirked mischievously, making all the women laugh while Naruto and Sasuke stared into each other's eyes quietly, as if discussing something without sharing words.

"No... Sorry. We've been staying for too long anyway. It was the last mission Kakashi gave us, and it can not be delayed anymore. That would be dishonorable at least. Besides, I have a personal interest in this."

"I understand," Naruto nodded seriously, smiling the next second. "You still need to find them. Are you leaving now, then?"

"Yeah. In two hours or so."

"Alright. I guess this is goodbye, then," he let go of Hanabi and came close to his friend, hugging him tightly which made Sasuke feel a bit uncomfortable and since slightly – it was so notable that it made everyone on the roof giggle as they watched the unusually sentimental scene.

"If you don't mind, though," he backed off a bit, meeting the impassive eyes of the Uchiha, "I'd like to have a word with your wife before you leave. As your new Hokage, that is," he smirked slyly.

The black haired man's brow cocked in surprise at the mention of Hinata. Looking at her masked face for a second, he nodded.

"Fine. I'll be waiting for you at home. We still need Kiba and Shino to come there anyway. Orochimaru is already waiting for us." He turned away, walking towards the stairs along with Sakura and Shikamaru who frowned at Naruto but didn't question the strange request of the blond.

"Uh... I guess I'll just go home and make us a dinner...?" Hanabi mumbled, frowning a bit and pecking Naruto's cheek. "Don't be late."

The blond smirked cheerfully.

"Of course! I'm never late, y'know!" The brown haired kunoichi smiled before nodding and rushing towards the exit as well.

When he and Hinata were finally left alone, Naruto came close to the black haired woman that was facing him with her hands clasped in front of her.

"You can take the mask off, you know... Nobody can see you here."

She hesitated for a second before submitting, putting the mask away and closing her eyes joyfully at the gust of fresh air and sunshine.

"What did you want to discuss with me, Naruto?" She asked the next moment, not looking at him and enjoying the freedom she rarely had in this village nowadays.

He sighed, patting her forearm gently which made the kunoichi flinch and open her white eyes, gazing at him with an incredulous note.

"Look... I realize that you probably won't tell me anything since Sasuke hasn't done that so far no matter what I tried. But as you also well know, I can't simply give up, eh..."

She frowned as her eyes slid to his strong hand that was now resting on her shoulder.

"I don't understand."

"Hinata..." The compassionate blue eyes met the impassive white irises. "Please, tell me what's going on."

They have been staring at each other for what seemed like ages before the woman finally opened her mouth slowly, whispering,

"I wish I knew."

He certainly didn't expect this kind of reply from her. Which was why Naruto nearly gasped, clenching his friend's thin shoulder.

"What do you mean you don't know...? Hinata... You and Sasuke–"

She sighed sadly, hugging herself and lowering her head.

"It's not really about the two of us... It's about him. I–I'm not sure if I should tell you, but..." She closed her mouth, shaking her head.

"Tell me what? Please, Hinata, I _must_ know!" The blond exclaimed desperately which made the kunoichi wince as if she was in pain.

"Is that a direct order of the Hokage?" She asked suddenly, looking at him askance and cocking her head slightly.  
He stopped for a second, confused by the unexpected question before smiling in realization of her tricky move.

"Yes... Of course it is!"

Hinata lowered her head again.

"Well, I guess I can tell you then... At least the part he didn't call a big secret. I'm sure you'll figure out the rest... It's about Orochimaru. This is his main concern nowadays."

Naruto frowned, giving her a baffled look.

"Orochimaru...? What does he have to do with anything?"

She sighed.

"He doesn't... At least there is no proof yet. But Sasuke suspects him of plotting against Akatsuki and Konoha. He believes that it was Orochimaru who killed the Sixth... No. Actually, Sasuke believes that Kakashi-san is still alive."

"Huh?" Naruto gasped in disbelief again, staring at her with his eyes wide open. "Why the heck didn't he tell me, then?"

She bit her lip, looking away.

"He is not certain about that. He intends to corner Orochimaru during this mission to read his memories at some point. And if he is correct in that suspicion–"

"He better ends this sneaky freak for good then!" Naruto groaned angrily, lowering his hands and clenching his fists.

It all began to make sense to him now. That's why Sasuke felt so desperate lately – without Kakashi and moreover with traitors in their midst, the fragile world wide system they had been building carefully throughout the last few years would inevitably collapse, marking the ultimate failure of Naruto's idea of peace and probably leading to another destructive war.

And then it would be Sasuke's turn to set the rules of the game according to their agreement... That's why...!

The Seventh Hokage gritted his teeth. It was his time to make a choice, so it seemed. Just like his brother in all but blood had done in the past...  
Naruto had made a vow. The feud between Indra and Ashura was over. And if Ashura's way of peace was going to fail...

The shinobi closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Then he would follow his brother's ideas this time. He would never go back on his words.

This was his ninja way.

"I get it," Naruto finally uttered slowly, making Hinata let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Can you do me a small favor? No... Two favors, actually."

"Like what?" Asked the woman cautiously, meeting his unusually serious look.

"If it ever comes down to this, before Sasuke does anything reckless, let him know that I told you this..." He took a deep breath again before muttering, "I'm not going to leave his side. We started this together, and we'll atone for our mistakes together should something go wrong, too!"

Hinata smiled happily, nodding quickly.

"Of course... Of course, I will tell him. Thank you so much, Naruto!"

"And the other favor, if you don't mind."

"Uh... Yes?"

He smirked.

"Let's have a lunch together. I'd like to ask you a few things about Hanabi! Oh, and also about that little thing you and Sasuke forgot to tell me about," He smirked and pointed at her abdomen with his finger before activating his Flying Thunder God technique, teleporting the two of them away.

* * *

"Man, I dunno... Are you sure that it's a wise idea? I mean, it'll make her mad as hell for sure. And that's to say the least, I'm afraid."

"What are you suggesting, then?" muttered Sasuke irritatedly, sipping hot green tea from the cup he was holding and crossing his legs as he looked at Kiba who was sitting along with Shino on the couch opposite to his chair in the guest room of the Uchiha's house. "For me to take my pregnant wife to a village full of crazy religious maniacs and bigots?"

"No, well... Ugh," The brown haired man scratched his chin thoughtfully, looking cautiously at Orochimaru who was standing near the window with his hands crossed on his chest. The sannin didn't appear to be any interested in their conversation, but it was still a bit bothersome and awkward to have him around, especially in the middle of Konoha.

"To be honest, Sasuke's idea is probably the best option there is right now. Of course, it will make her upset, but it is better than her getting hurt or even killed," reasoned Shino quietly.

"True, I guess..." Kiba sighed, nodding in agreement. "But she's still gonna kick our asses when she realized what's going on."

"None of you has considered the main danger there is to her and to all of us in this little plan of yours," said Orochimaru suddenly, turning his head slightly to glance at them over his shoulder. "The moon is near the required phase. The Ōtsutsuki brethren might come after her any moment now."

"And that's precisely why I need your aid," said Sasuke, looking at his former teacher. "Have you brought everything I told you to?"

"Of course," the man snapped.

"Let's not waste any more time, then. You said it yourself, we must hurry up."

The sannin snorted disapprovingly, coming close to the tea table and putting a few small selaed glass jars on it.

"Ew! What the heck is that?" yelped Kiba, reflectively backing off a little.

"The remaining Sharingan eyes I salvaged from Uchiha Obito's storage at the former Aktasuki hideout. There are only five of them, as you can see. The rest of the eyes have been destroyed by Zetsu, I presume."

"That's more than enough." Sasuke raised up from the chair, grabbing one of the jars and studying it briefly before grinning mockingly at Kiba. "If you can't stand the view, just turn away for a while."

"Very funny! Ha-ha!" barked the Inuzuka, rolling his eyes.

The Uchiha smirked in amusement.

"Follow me then, everyone."

He channeled his chakra into his left eye, opening a dimensional rift and walking straight into it. Before anyone managed to ask a question as they followed him, two bodies smacked right on the snowy ground of some deep dark forest – the ninjas were bound and clearly unconscious.

"Woah! Where are we?" asked Kiba, looking around and sniffing, trying to catch any smells.

"Somewhere in the Land of Iron."

"And these are...?" asked Orochimaru, looking at the pair of ninja curiously with a slight glimpse of amusement in the eyes.

"The cultists I caught recently while I was scouting their area at Hidan's village. They are under my genjutsu, so don't worry. I'd have to kill them soon anyway, therefore it won't make that big of a difference."

"Woah, wait a second! What exactly are you going to do with them?" exclaimed Kiba, looking at Sasuke worriedly while Shino who had been keeping quiet throughout their conversation bowed down to examine one of the tied men.

Orochimaru smiled in anticipation.

"I'll use Edo Tensei on them in order to defend–"

"No," Sasuke interrupted Orochimaru suddenly, stepping out of the rift and closing it, wincing a little at the cold wind.

"I beg your pardon?" Orochimaru frowned at the Uchiha.

"I'll be the one to use the jutsu on them. It will be better this way."

"Are you implying that you doubt in my command?" The sannin nearly hissed, which made Kiba and Shino narrow their eyes suspiciously at the man, realizing that Sasuke probably didn't trust his former master all that much, after all.

"No... This isn't about trust at all. You can revive the rest later. It's just that the control over these ones won't be necessary, and I want to test the jutsu out myself."

The yellow eyes of a snake stared into the mismatching pair he had once desired to get so much before the older ninja finally nodded slowly and reluctantly.

"Fair enough. You know what to do."

"Yeah. I need the blood now. And the scrolls, too."

Without further questioning, Orochimaru took a test tube out of the pocket of his cloak, handing it to Sasuke along with a crumpled scroll.

"There is only one," said Sasuke, and it sounded like it was partly a question and partly a statement at the same time.

"Yes. Sadly enough, I didn't manage to retrieve more of Itachi's samples. It seems like we won't be able to revive him anymore. Tough luck," something in his voice made them realize that Orochimaru didn't think it was bad, though.

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes. It was understandable that the sannin didn't want Itachi to be brought back, but at least now he wouldn't be tempted to use the gift he had prepared for Hinata for his own selfish desire...  
On the other hand, he still hadn't managed to figure out how to awaken Itachi's true power in his eyes, and he was so short on time. It was getting troublesome.

"No matter. Finish this guy off, then. This blood sample is the one I asked for, isn't it?"

"Indeed."

The Uchiha nodded and took a deep, a bit nervous breath, weaving a few hand signs before slamming his palm into the snow.

" _Edo Tensei no Jutsu_!"

Kiba gasped in awe while Shino narrowed his eyes behind the dark glasses, looking at Orochimaru who appeared to be most displeased with Sasuke's decision to preform the dire jutsu himself. Clearly some plan of the old snake's had just been ruined... They would need to watch him closely while Sasuke would be away from the village. Even if they were no match for him...

"What the heck?" The Inuzuka whispered, staring at the fake body of a young man with long straight brown hair who opened the black eyes with white irises, blinking a few times.

"Is that him? I can hardly remember what he looked like...," Sasuke muttered to the members of Hinata's old team, to which Kiba nodded nervously.

"Yeah... It's definitely him! But why did you–"

"What's the meaning of this...? Where am I?" Asked the revived ninja who appeared to be around eighteen years old before quickly eyeing everyone who stood in front of him, finally stopping his eyes on Sasuke. "Is this–?"

"We are pretty far from Konoha right now. You've been revived with Edo Tensei no Jutsu by Sasuke-kun right here," said Orochimaru, leaning against the thick oak and clearly enjoying the teen's lost and frightened state.

"Sasuke, huh...? Does it mean that you guys have won the war? And if you are together with Hinata-sama's teammates... Does it mean that Naruto has managed to bring you back, after all?" He frowned then. "You also look a few years older now... How much time has passed since I died?"

"Nearly four years. But make no mistake...," said Sasuke insinuatingly, meeting the familiar white eyes of his former rival. "I'm here only because of your sister. And so are you."

"Huh?" He seemed to be utterly confused. "Care to elaborate? And where is Hinata-sama herself?"

"She's with Naruto right now. Don't worry, she will tell you everything herself soon enough. I'm afraid I don't have enough time for it, and it's not really my place to do it. For now, though... I have one more thing I must do to you." Uchiha looked at the sannin for a moment before finally taking the Sharingan out of its jar.

"Together with Naruto...?" The teen muttered quietly, smiling and closing his eyes in joy. "So she has made it, after all..."

Sasuke smirked ironically, studying the Sharingan eye closely.

"Yeah, I guess you could say so." With a nasty sound that made Kiba and Shino cringe a bit, Sasuke ripped his right eye out of its socket, replacing it with the foreign one. "Now that I have the First Hokage's cells in my body, it should work just fine... But you better step away. I've never tried this before, obviously." He clapped his hands in front of him.

"What exactly are you doing, Sasuke-kun?" asked Orochimaru, following the Uchiha's every movement with a greedy, curious gaze.

"Coming up with my own way of achieving immortality while ensuring Hinata's safety at the same time," said the young shinobi simply, and the temporary Sharingan shined with bright red light the next moment. "Try killing me now."

Hesitating for a split second, Orochimaru summoned his blade into his grasp, stabbing Sasuke through his heart which made the young shinobi as well as everyone else gasp in shock.

"What the–!" Before Kiba could finish the sentence, the Uchiha vanished, reappearing right next to his previous spot and looking absolutely fine – even his clothes were now intact.

"Well, it seems you can use Izanagi now. But that is not really immortality, Sasuke-kun. If you want, I could teach you the way to achieve it..."

"You misunderstood," Sasuke formed the ram sign with his hands, followed by the snake sign. " _This_ is what grants me immortality. _Rinne Tensei no Jutsu_!"

His hair began turning snowy white, and Neji's artificial body began shining with blindingly bright light as the Hyūga looked down at his hands in amazement and fear.

"What is this...?" He whispered in awe, and then in just a few seconds the light disappeared, making him feel...

Alive?

"How...?" He whispered again, looking at the white haired Sasuke who fell down on his knees, panting and coughing.

"Oh... I see now. That's... Clever. Very clever. As expected from you, Sasuke-kun," mused Orochimaru, smiling slyly at his seemingly dying former student.

"I–I told you...," he grinned weakly, vanishing and reappearing again, looking perfectly fine this time, with his hair black once again – the only difference was that his right eye was now closed. "It worked. Meaning that this way, I can be revived at least four more times. I've put a reverse summoning seal on my left eye so that should I die, the seal will activate and send my Rinnegan to the safe place where I had also put a few samples of my blood. Basically, anyone powerful enough will be able to revive me the same way I've just revived the Hyūga here," he pointed at Neji with a nod – the teen was still staring at his hands in disbelief, clenching his fingers and trying to catch his breath. "It seems you are a bit younger than all of us now, though. But I think I can fix that, too," he came close to Neji, touching his forehead and activating the Human Path of his Rinnegan, draining a little bit of life force out of Hinata's brother which made him look a few years older in just a few seconds.

"Is this... This power... Of a god...? Just... Just what on earth have you become, Sasuke?" asked Neji huskily, too afraid to make a move before the Uchiha removed his fingers from his head and frowned.

"Your cursed seal is also gone now...," he muttered, ignoring the Hyūga's question. "That's interesting. But I suppose it makes sense given that you had died before. Still... Don't take this personally," Sasuke turned away, opening another dimensional rift. "I only did this because I wanted to test out my idea about combining the powers of Sharingan and Rinnegan. Evidently it is true that working together, they can achieve anything... Well, there is also another reason why I chose you to be my test subject," he added.

"And what reason is that?" Neji frowned a bit, making the Uchiha smirk at the still shocked ninja.

"You see, I'd like to thank my wife for becoming the mother of my child she is now pregnant with. Your revival is basically my gift to her. She's been missing you quite a lot, and I don't like watching her crying whenever we visit the cemetery in Konoha."

Neji frowned and then paled the next moment.

"Don't tell me that you married Tenten."

Kiba chuckled, and even Shino couldn't hold back a smile.

"No, as far as I'm concerned, she's still single," replied Sasuke in a slightly baffled tone. "I didn't know you liked her this way."

The Hyūga frowned even deeper, blushing slightly and clearly trying to figure out who could've missed him so much if not Tenten.

"Then who–," he paled then, putting his hand to his heart. "Oh, no... Please, don't tell me that–"

"Careful, Sasuke. He might die again, to a heart attack this time." the Inuzuka laughed loudly, to which Sasuke chuckled himself. He knew that Kiba wasn't very fond of Neji, and he certainly wasn't the Hyūga's fan himself, but so long as it would make Hinata happy as well as distract her while he'd go to Kaguya's lair without his wife or anyone else for that matter, everything was good in his opinion.

"You better calm down indeed. I won't be wasting another eye to bring you back to live again. Kindly don't ruin my surprise for Hinata."

Neji sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"I sure have missed a lot of things."

* * *

"Oh huh? Damn it, I bet Sasuke was ecstatic to find out!" yelped Naruto with a sly face as he and Hinata were walking across the street of Konoha towards her and Sasuke's house.

"Actually, he knew that was going to happen," she said mysteriously, smiling behind the mask and blushing.

"Really? How come?" Naruto looked at her in surprise, clasping his hands behind his nape. People were watching them from every corner of the street as everyone wanted to take a closer look at their new Hokage, but neither of the friends really cared. The Uzumaki had gotten used to this attention long ago, and Hinata... She simply didn't care so long as the mask was hiding her real identity from them. Unlike in Suna where they'd had their lunch, she was still a criminal in her home village.

"He was the one to suggest it, and I agreed," she lied shamelessly, biting her lip to hold back a childish giggle. Of course, there was hardly anything funny in their situation, but she still felt a bit mischievous by fooling Naruto like this, knowing that it was her demand to begin with.

"That Sasuke! I can't believe you guys will become parents before everyone else! Damn, It would've been so cool for all of us to have our brats study in the same group at the academy! Shame on you!"

Hinata nearly coughed, laughing aloud.

"Really? And how do you imagine that happening? That would require for all of us to make love simultaneously. Isn't that a bit overboard?"

Naruto blushed, chuckling awkwardly.

"Well, I didn't think about that. I guess you have a point here. Still, congratulations! Hopefully I didn't mess up with the flowers, I was never really good at picking the right ones, y'know."

Hinata looked down at the large bouquet of red peonies in her hands before smiling warmly.

She had never imagined herself receiving her first flowers from Naruto as a congratulation for being pregnant with another man's child. And it was especially ironical considering that she was now a bit afraid for her husband to get jealous because of these flowers – of course, Sasuke wasn't silly enough to feel that way, especially because of Naruto, but she still didn't want him to feel even a little bad... Even hypothetically. Which made her feel slightly ashamed for spending so much time with Naruto at that cafe.  
But on the other hand, she had been so hungry... And when she thought about it, she still was...

The kunoichi shook her head, realizing that she wasn't paying attention to her friend's merry jabbering as her thoughts were too consumed by the memories of that wonderful salmon sashimi she had eaten just thirty minutes ago.

She wanted that dish again... And she never even liked the fish to begin with.

The woman frowned, shaking her head again. What on earth was going on in her head...?

"Hey, Hinata-chan, are you alright?" Naruto stopped, looking at her a bit worriedly.

"Uh... Yes? I'm sorry, Naruto, I think spaced out for a moment."

He smirked understandingly.

"It's okay. I was telling you that we'd come." He pointed at the door of her house, making Hinata flinch and turn her head in that direction.

"Oh... Sorry. Thank you for everything, Naruto. And make sure that you don't spoil that surprise you are preparing for Hanabi. It will make her so happy if you do it the way I told you."

The Hokage smiled brightly.

"You're welcome, hehe. Nah, I won't, don't worry. It will be a piece of cake. Hm-m," he hemmed, narrowing his eyes at the second floor of the house suddenly. "I feel some foreign presence... That's weird. Hold on, just a second..."

His irises turned amber and his pupils now resembled a bizarre mixture of those of a fox and of a toad at the same time.

"Holy shit...," he whispered, turning to Hinata. "Actually, now that I think about it, I wanted to show you something at–"

"What's going on, Naruto?" she quickly asked cautiously, gripping the bouquet tighter.

"Uh... Well... Just don't activate your Byakugan, alright? Please, just don't."

"Alright...," she drawled slowly, turning her head towards the house again. "I hope you don't want to tell me that there is a woman in our house Sasuke is currently with, do you?"

The amber eyes widened at her assumption.

"Huh? What? No! Nothing like that!"

"Then what is it?" she asked impatiently, stamping her foot against the ground.

The Seventh Hokage signed, grasping her forearm gently and leading her towards the door.

"Actually I want to see it myself, so I'm going in, too. Let's go." They walked into the hallway and Hinata took her mask off quickly as well as her black cloak, revealing the Uchiha crest on the back of her white shirt.

"Sasuke? Are you there?" She yelled worriedly, looking at the ceiling of the first floor.

"Yeah...," came the deaf, tensed reply. "Is Naruto with you?" his question made the woman frown. Why would Sasuke ask about Naruto before anything else...? It just had to be something serious, then...

"Yea! I'm here! What the fuck have you done, Sasuke? And more importantly, how?" the blond's voice sounded equally amazed, angered and shocked at the same time.

"Just tested out a few of my eyes' abilities..." The Uchiha shinobi appeared right next to his wife the next moment – in fact, he had teleported right into her hug as he swapped himself with the bouquet of flowers in her hands, so she hugged him tightly reflectively. "Don't activate your dōjutsu."

"S-Sasuke... You are frightening me. What's going on? P-Please, tell me," she stuttered, probably for the first time in months, feeling too feared and nervous to withstand whatever was happening.

"Nothing bad, I swear. But you might... Freak out when you see what I've done."

"What y-you've... Done...?" She muttered, letting her husband go and stepping backwards. "I want to see it. Now."

The Uchiha nodded.

"You need to, yes. But don't let go of my hand no matter what. I'm warning you, it may really shock you."

"Alright..."

She gripped his elbow, going upstairs on her shaking legs along with the tall raven haired man while Naruto followed them, still with an unreadable mixture of emotions written on his face.

Sasuke was right, it seemed. She really needed his hand, because the young kunoichi fainted as soon as she stepped into the room and met _his_ eyes.

Those white eyes that were nearly identical to her own and looked at her with grief and happiness at the same time.

* * *

"Hinata-sama...!" Neji gasped, rushing towards her but stopping midway – she was already caught by Sasuke who hugged her tightly, pulling the kunoichi towards the couch near the wall of the room and putting her down there carefully.

"Damn, Sasuke... How the fuck did you do this?" whispered Naruto, staring at Neji with his eyes wide open. "Is this another ability of your Rinnegan you forgot to tell me about? Is he even real?"

"He is real... And no, it's not just my left eye...," murmured the Uchiha, taking a small vial from the nearest nightstand, opening it and putting it to Hinata's nose. "But partly, yes. I combined it with the ability of Sharingan, with the chakra of the First and also with Edo Tensei. All these factors together allowed me to manipulate both Yin and Yang energies on the level high enough to transform his artificial Edo Tensei body into a real one without dying myself in the process. I recall I told you that with this eye, I would eventually find a way to attain immortality... Well, I have done that," he smirked as Hinata sneezed, opening her eyelids slowly and staring at her husband's face.

"Tell me that I'm not dreaming... Please," she whispered weakly, too afraid to look away from is eyes.

"No, you aren't. I brought him back for you," he smiled gently, kissing her softly on the lips.

"How...?" She whispered, but he shook his head, putting his finger against her mouth.

"It's irrelevant right now. I believe you have a lot to discuss with him. He seemed to be quite shocked to find out that you are an Uchiha now," he glanced at Neji who frowned at his last line. "But I decided to leave the opportunity to tell him everything for you. We'll go out for now so that the two of you can discuss everything in private. Take your time and call me if you need anything. Let's go, lads."

Orochimaru, Kiba and Shino went after Sasuke downstairs, and even Naruto followed them reluctantly, although he really wanted to share a few words with his miraculously resurrected friend.

"Man, he didn't even notice my cloak," groaned the blond childishly, making Kiba chuckle.

"Seriously, dude? Is that what's bothering you the most right now?"

"Well, not exactly," the Uzumaki blushed, sitting down on the floor near the tea table. "So what's the deal? Why did you do this, Sasuke?" The black haired man grabbed the black cloak from the table, draping it over his shoulders before wincing and taking it off as it turned to be Hinata's, picking another one then before finally turning to face his friend.

"Why did I do what? Ensure my survival permanently?" he smirked, clearly pleased with himself.

"No! Not that! Why did you choose _him_ to be the one to revive?" Sasuke frowned, surprised to see the strange anger in Naruto's bright blue eyes.

"Are you implying that I should've brought back someone else?"

"Of course! Why not _him_?"

It was probably the first time in ages when the Uchiha didn't fully understand his friend's reasoning. Sure, he had told the blond a lot about Itachi's past, and now it even angered Naruto as much as it infuriated Sasuke himself whenever somebody mentioned Itachi's name in a negative context.

Still, it was weird to see Naruto so indignant about the choice the Uchiha had made. It wasn't really any of the blond's business, was it? Although... Given that reviving Itachi was now impossible according to Orochimaru, was there even a choice to begin with...?

But he wasn't going to explain that to the jinchūriki. Instead, he grabbed his sword from the corner of the room.

"I'll tell you later when I get back from the mission."

It was Naruto's time to frown.

"Are you saying that you're going alone, after all?"

"Yeah."

"But what about the rest of you guys?" The Seventh looked across the room. Kiba and Shino appeared to be a bit uncomfortable under his gaze while Orochimaru just stared at the ceiling of the room with a plain bored expression. "What's going on here, eh?"

"I was planning on going alone since the very beginning. By bringing Hyūga Neji back, I happened to have found a way to distract Hinata for a while. I don't want to put her in danger in her current state, you should be able to understand that, Naruto. I wanted to ask you, though. And everyone else, too," he opened a dimensional rift, meeting the Uzumaki's gaze one final time. "No matter what happens, don't let her leave Konoha while I'm away. And beware of the guests from the moon. Orochimaru says they can come here any moment nowadays, so I'm counting on you, Naruto."

The blond took a deep breath, snorting and looking away before crossing his arms.

"Whatever. As if I needed your help to protect my village."

Sasuke smirked, shaking his head at his friend.

"You better need not. Until next time... Everyone." He stepped into the rift and it closed the next second, leaving the Uchiha's friends staring at the empty spot.

"I still don't understand anything." The Uzumaki finally sighed, breaking the oppressive silence and grabbing his temples.

"It's going to be fine, Naruto-kun. For now, feel free to go and settle whatever business you have as our new Hokage. There are a few very important international issues you must resolve as soon as possible. I'll handle things here meanwhile, don't you worry," said Orochimaru, smirking at his former Akatsuki partner reassuringly.

"Alright," said the blond slowly, getting up and walking to the door. "I've left a Hiraishin seal upstairs, so I'll come immediately should something nasty happen while I'm away," he gave the sannin a short warning look before adding, "See you, guys."

* * *

"I can't believe this is really you," uttered Hinata in a trembling voice, toughing his cheek carefully, as if afraid that he might disappear all of sudden.

"Yes, I can't believe it either," said her brother, putting his palm on hers. "You have changed a lot. I can hardly recognize you now, and I'm not talking about the looks, even though you have changed in this aspect too."

She bit her lip, lowering her eyes, as if slightly ashamed. But was she, really...? He was right, and she was happy with that.

"Yes, I have. And you haven't changed one bit. Although...," she gave him a small smile, narrowing her eyes and studying his face closely. "You look a bit older than what I remember. And your cursed seal... It's gone! Is that Sasuke's work, too?"

Neji nodded seriously.

"Partly, at least as far as I understood. Your husband is a man of few words, I must say. He didn't tell me much." She frowned a bit at the slightly harsh notes in his voice.

"That he is. It's one of many reasons why I love him. He doesn't talk a lot, but when he does, it always comes from his heart."

The Hyūga sighed, closing his eyes and putting her hand away.

"You don't stutter anymore... What has he done to you? You are... So confident now. And a lot more beautiful than before."

She smiled warmly, blushing a little and looking away.

"He used to be my sensei shortly after the war. I... I needed his guidance to become a worthy kunoichi."

"You were always worthy–!"

"Not according to father," she interrupted him, making the young man frown suspiciously.

"What do you mean?"

Hinata met his eyes again, this time with a very serious expression.

"It's... A bit hard to explain. The story is too long anyway, so I'd rather postpone it for a while. I...," she bit her lip, thinking for a few seconds before continuing, "Let's just say that he was the reason why I ended up with Sasuke. He was also the reason why I have been so weak all through my life. But when I ran away from the village–"

"You WHAT?" Neji gasped in shock as his eyes widened, making the young woman sigh again.

"He wanted to brand me, nii-san. To put that cursed seal on my head. I chose to run away – fortunately, I had a chance to. And I was also lucky enough to meet Sasuke on my way." She smiled happily, lowering her eyes. "He agreed to let me travel with him, and to teach me a lot of his own techniques. He made me strong. Far stronger than I ever had been prior to that day. I can even use his favorite Chidori now! Not to mention a lot of other, far more powerful things. And also... I think even you are no match for me anymore," she uttered quietly yet vigorously, meeting his eyes with her own white orbs full of resolve and courage. "I'm an S-rank kunoichi now."

Neji took a deep breath, remaining silent for a few seconds and studying her face.

"S-rank...? So you are on the level of a Kage, then... I... I see. Well... These are good news, I suppose. But what about Naruto?"

Hianta frowned, but this time she didn't look away.

"He was another reason why I ran away from the village. I told him everything about my feelings a few days after the war's ending, and he rejected me. It's good that he did, though," she added quickly, seeing how Neji clenched his fists angrily. "If he didn't, I would probably have never met my true love. I would never have helped him to revive our clan... The Uchiha, I mean," she added, noticing the baffled look he gave her and then lowering her head, touching her abdomen gently. "And I also wouldn't have found out the truth about our family."

"The truth?" he asked carefully. "What truth are you talking about?"

Hinata closed her eyes, letting out a loud shuddering sigh before opening her mouth to begin telling her brother the long story of back side of her life.

"It all started the day when Hanabi was born..."


	30. Sasuke and Kaguya

**Chapter 30. Sasuke and Kaguya**

The cold impenetrable darkness of the night surrounding the small hut in the middle of nowhere didn't let the lonely man see anything behind the old dirty window with his dim lifeless eyes. The eyes that had great power in them once, and could see a lot of things normal people couldn't. Even nowadays, whenever he activated it here, his Sharingan revealed every inch of this tiny room that was, in fact, his cell, with far more clarity than regular eyes ever could.

Actually, he could navigate his prison even without using his dōjutsu. At this point, he knew every single piece of the ageless parquetry on the floor, every seal around that bound him, preventing the ninja from leaving this damned chamber. He knew them by sight, by touch. He knew the way his footsteps would echo with every one of the twelve steps it took him to pace across the room. He felt the flows of his former student's chakra all around, too. Seal after seal, one jutsu after another, this tremendous power intended to do only one thing: make sure he stayed buried here, forgotten and dead to everyone who still remembered him after these... weeks? Months? He wasn't sure, and it didn't really matter. Time flew differently in this forsaken world, or maybe it just seemed to. It didn't matter either.

The one who incarcerated him intended this dead place to be his tomb, without a doubt. If not for the poor young woman who was still kind and caring enough to have visited Kakashi from time to time, providing him with food and sometimes with brief talks about various seemingly irrelevant things, he would have been sure that Sasuke had already forgotten about him by now. Frankly, he should have killed him. It would have been much more kind and fair considering everything that'd happened between them in the past. They used to be teammates and friends, after all. And yet... instead he let him live, pretending it was mercy on his part. Funny.

Did it let Sasuke feel better about himself...? Or was it just a whim without a real reason behind it? Or perhaps Kakashi was still alive only thanks to the kindness of Uchiha Hinata...? And even she hadn't come to see him in weeks by now... Had something happened back in their world? Had Sasuke's plan succeeded... or failed?

The man fell back on the small couch, rubbing his sleepy eyes and letting out a loud helpless sigh.  
He could still remember their last conversation like it had happened just yesterday...

-v-v-v-

 ** _A few days ago ago..._**

Kakashi flinched, putting aside the book he was rereading for the fourth time since he had nothing better to do in his prison, focusing his eyes on the rift that opened in the middle of the small room. It was looking familiar – unlike when Sasuke opened them by himself, this one was spiral shaped, sort of reminding him of his own Kamui. Meaning that it was her, again... using whatever trinket he'd created for her to be able to come here.

Just like the last time, the young woman dressed in the long sleeved black coat without any signs or ornaments on it popped in the room as the rift closed. Her face wasn't masked this time – apparently, she'd come here either straight from their home or not from Konoha at all this time, for there was obviously no need for her to conceal her face for once.

"Hello... Hokage-sama."

He smirked without a sign of joy on his face.

"Yo, Hinata. Still Hokage, huh? I guess Naruto is not in power yet, then?"

She frowned, coming closer to him and putting the small bundle with a few boxes of food and, more importantly, another book for him on the small table.

"I'm afraid I can't tell..."

He nodded, looking away.

"Understandable. But seeing that you have come here again, I assume that everything is fine... for now at least."

She let out a small smile, nodding as well.

"Yes... you could say so. At least nothing nasty happened yet." The woman sat on the couch next to him, unwrapping the bundle. "I cooked your favorite stew as well as some rolls, and – ugh, what was it called..."

"Thank you," his warm smile wasn't visible, but it was genuine nonetheless. "I really appreciate everything you do for me, even though I don't see why does he let you."

Strange, but the white eyes seemed to be afraid to meet his gaze, reminding him of the shy and powerless girl this Uchiha had once been.

"I–," she lowered her head and bit her lip, looking uncertain. "I think it will be over soon."

"Huh?" Kakashi frowned, moving a bit closer towards her but reluctant to give the kunoichi a reassuring gesture, not sure how she would react to it coming from him. "How do you mean?"

She paused, still afraid to look at the man, clearly picking the words very carefully as she opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally uttering:

"Sasuke is about to set his plan in motion... Actually, it would have already happened if not for some... unexpected complications," she smiled shyly, touching her belly before hugging herself.

"Oh...?"

That wasn't completely unexpected, but at the same time, according to Tsunade, it could drive Hinata closer to becoming the vessel for Kaguya. Was this the reason behind Sasuke's change of plans...? Probably... but it wouldn't hurt to try to get some confirmation of his assumptions. Luckily, the Uchiha matriarch wasn't the smartest woman he'd ever encountered, so it was relatively easy to retrieve small pieces of valuable information out of her indirectly, approaching her by tangents and shamelessly abusing her respect and former trust for him.

"Does he know?"

She gave him a slightly scared look before slowly shaking her head, smiling apologetically.

"No, not yet. By complications, I didn't mean _this_... It's just that he wants everything to go perfectly, as usual. Well, you know him. He doesn't want to take any chances."

Yes, that sounded very much like Sasuke indeed. But at the same time... something here wasn't quite right.

"Why didn't you tell him yet? Are you afraid? Afraid of his reaction?"

She giggled to his surprise, and shook her head again.

"No, not at all. It's just that... They are so busy lately, him and Naruto. I don't want to distract Sasuke by telling him just yet. It could wait a bit, don't you think so? And besides, it doesn't really matter all that much comparing to what we'll have to deal with soon..."

Hatake pursed his lips, looking away and frowning. So, apparently, she didn't know that pregnancy was a risk in her situation... And why the hell did Sasuke not tell her this?

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at Hinata's slightly baffled face as she looked back at him in confusion. Whatever was the reason behind his former student's silence on the matter, someone needed to tell her...!

"Hinata, don't you know that this... condition... makes you more vulnerable to Kaguya's spirit?" asked the man carefully, to which the kunoichi lowered her eyes sadly, though not looking surprised at all as she nodded.

"Yes, Sasuke told me that. But I... I still insisted."

Hatake gasped, staring at her in disbelief.

"You _what_? Hinata, this is insanely unwise and irresponsible! What if–"

"I'm out of danger," she suddenly snapped, sounding slightly aggressive for the first time as far as he could remember, giving the shinobi a grim stare. "Kaguya will never reach me. He won't let her."

A few seconds of silence passed before Hinata's features softened and her eyes became slightly scared again, for she had realized that she'd just told the Sixth something he wasn't supposed to know.

"I–I...," she stuttered, covering her mouth with her palm.

"Don't say a word," said Kakashi quietly as his suspicions got strengthened. "Just... please, tell me... or give me a sign, anything, I'm begging you... Was this why you insisted on... getting pregnant before he would... do something? Is... Is Sasuke in danger?"

She paled, standing up and backing off.

"I need to go... Goodbye, Kakashi-san."

"Will I see you again...?"

There was no response as she disappeared, leaving the man alone and, what was shockingly surprising to him, scared for the Uchiha family.

Long days and nights had dragged by when he never heard the voice of another living thing. He didn't even have any jailers aside from Hinata, and it was the most maddening torture to Kakashi. Come to think about it, it was quite ironic considering his rather introverted personality. Never before could he have imagined himself craving for a contact with another person so much...

The man flinched, suddenly feeling the unfamiliar disturbance in the space around him.

What was that? A faint tremor in the ring of chakra that connected the binding seals? Or something more? Were the wards weakening for some reason...?

Impossible. There was no escape from this place. Not even death, for Sasuke's genjutsu prevented him from commiting suicide, and the Uchiha's chakra healed any harm he might inflict on himself. It also kept him alive without need for water or food even though he still ate with pleasure whatever Hinata brought to him – her dishes were always quite delicious, to his amusement that was a rare thing lately, obviously.

In any case, these bonds had been woven by someone of the Sage of the Sixth Paths level, drawn so tight, intertwined so deeply that they could be undone only by this very person who had buried him alive in this lifeless world. And he probably would never do that... At least not anytime soon. Sasuke had to be too afraid to possibly set Kakashi free, and justifiably so. After all, although Hatake was pretty sure that he had figured out what the Uchiha's real plan was about, Sasuke wouldn't trust him enough to put said plan under a risk by blindly counting on his old sensei again. And should Kakashi miraculously return to the realm of the living now, it would be very troublesome for Sasuke to explain everything to the people of Konoha and of their Akatsuki formation. Not to mention that the young man couldn't be sure that Hatake himself wouldn't try to interfere with his plans...

He flinched again, snapping his head up and looking at the locked door.

Was that the sound of footsteps? Whenever Hinata came to visit him, she appeared directly in the room via Sasuke's space time jutsu, so it couldn't possibly be her... could it?

He pushed the thought aside. No, it was probably just his impression. After all, this dimension was almost completely empty. Sasuke had put him in one of Kaguya's worlds, the icy wasteland with not a single human being alive aside from himself, only ancient ruins visible on the horizon. Therefore, Kakashi refused to let hope well up within his chest. There was no one out there who wanted him free. His comrades and his friends had no idea where he was or was he even still alive. The only ones who might still hope to find him could be Naruto, but the blond knucklehead had no ability to travel between dimensions. Besides, his jailor would kill him rather than let his friend find him. And as long as the wards remained in place, there was nothing anyone could do to stop Sasuke.

Yet there it was again. Another tremor in the flows of chakra around him. The weaves of power that had bound him all this time were weakening, without a doubt – he felt it clearly now. He raised his palms in front of his face, flexed his fingers, reached out to draw upon the chakra. For the first time in weeks, something responded, a trickle so weak that he thought he might be imagining it. He then activated his dōjutsu, the legendary 'borrowed' power – his Sharingan. Unlike before, this time the power flowed through his eyes easily, almost making him feel like he could move to the next level – his Mangekyo...

Would Kamui let him get away from here...?

His heart beat faster. His mouth felt dry. There was a chance of freedom after all. He clenched his fists tight. The person behind the door was getting closer... he felt it now, too.

With a raspy sound the wooden door opened slowly, letting the dark figure dressed in simple black pants and a gray sweater enter the room, the snowflakes on his shoulders instantly beginning to melt – it looked like there was a storm outside, accompanied by the horrible howl of wind.

"Sasuke...," whispered the man, swallowing and sitting back on the small couch. With the Uchiha around, the weak hope of getting out of here died out in a matter of seconds. "Why are you here? Did you come to kill me, at last?" Strangely, it almost felt relieving. At least this horrible torture of helpless solitude would finally come to an end.

"No," snapped the dark haired man, leaning his back on the door and eyeing his old teammate up and down, as though feeling conflicted about whatever he had come here for.

Kakashi frowned, suddenly feeling overly cocky for no apparent reason. Perhaps it was because he simply had nothing to lose anymore?

No matter.

"It's been a while since you came here in person, and I can't say I'm very glad to see you again. Although, you know, I got used to your wife's company and especially to her cooking. Could you send her here again next time instead of coming here yourself, please?"

"I need your help," said the young man abruptly, apparently deciding to ignore the weak taunt.

"Oh?" The gray eyes of the former Hokage suddenly sparked with long forgotten fire and narrowed at Sasuke as the gray haired man stretched his back. "That's new, albeit not completely unexpected. I suppose you are smart enough to have considered the way you are going to persuade me, then? Unless you want to just put me under your genjutsu, that is. I must warn you, that would be quite disappointing."

Sasuke's expression was impassive as always, but this time, Kakashi could read him like an open book. The ninja was being torn by some bizarre inner conflict... this was very unusual and weird. And almost frightening, too. What could have possibly driven the boy to such condition? Something horrible, probably.

"I'm going to die soon," finally said Sasuke, making Kakashi blink a few times and close his mouth for a few seconds, swallowing another taunting joke he had prepared.

"Come again?"

"I'm planning to encounter Kaguya's spirit in order to cut it from the realm of living permanently. I will most likely die in the process."

The Sixth Hokage's eyes widened in the shocking realization. Was this it? The thing Hinata had desperately tried to avoid talking about whenever Sasuke's plans were concerned in their conversations...? All of sudden, it all started making perfect sense. His intuition hadn't failed Hatake, after all. The Uchiha hadn't gone down Madara's path at all. This was completely different... still absolutely insane, but it was nowhere close to the dire intentions of Indra's previous incarnation.

"Is this... is this why you searched for the remnants of the statue...?"

"Yeah." He nodded, looking away thoughtfully. "I didn't expect you or anyone else to understand. And it turned out to be the right decision not to trust you at the end of the day. None of you would have let me claim it, and we all would be doomed by now."

The older man lowered his head, thinking for a few seconds. As painful as it was to admit it, Sasuke was right. The reputation of his clan and himself would always precede him now matter how hard the Uchiha would try to redeem himself and his name. Nothing ever goes unnoticed, and some damage simply couldn't be restored no matter how every side of the conflict wanted it.

"I... I see."

Sasuke smirked, meeting the man's sorrowful gaze with a slightly painful searching stare.

"What? No doubts? No questions? Nothing at all? I'm disappointed. You are getting old and boring, Kakashi."

Hatake sighed, shrugging weakly.

"I've had enough time to think on your possible motives. Besides, Hinata isn't very good when it comes to keeping secrets from those she finds likable, and we have talked a lot whenever she brought me those wonderful meals. Considering the threat coming from the moon, and the way how it's supposed to affect your wife, it is only natural that you want to prevent it all by yourself, knowing you. But... Are you really going to sacrifice yourself for her sake? Or is this because of her... condition?" he wasn't sure if it was wise to mention the fact that he was aware of Hinata's pregnancy, for he wasn't even sure if Sasuke knew about it himself.

Uchiha frowned at the man's shrewd questioning gaze, giving him a slightly arrogant glare.

"Not quite. Unlike her, I'm beyond death and life at this point, Kakashi."

It was now the Sixth's time to frown as he felt confused.

"What's this supposed to mean? I thought you said–"

"I know what I said. I will most likely die soon. However, I'm not planning to stay dead forever. And this is what I need your help for."

Kakashi blinked a few times again, suddenly feeling reassured. It seemed like his students always could find a way out of the most hopeless situations... no matter how much they had to aspire for it.

"Well, that's interesting. I'm all ears."

Sasuke nodded slowly, taking a long sigh and almost looking a bit nervous now to Hatake's surprise, appearing to be completely concentrated on the task at hand.

"I came up with a complex plan, but I'm positive that it is doable. We've performed harder things, so it shouldn't be too much for us to handle. If we succeed, it will allow me to ensure the safety of Hinata and of our children, to arrange my own revival and to get rid of Kaguya's menace for good, all at the same time. It won't be easy by any means either, but if we make everything right, the risks are minimal. Will you help me? Can I trust you... for once?"

Hatake shrugged .

"You always could, Sasuke. You simply didn't allow yourself to. You know, you should have learned it by now... In truth, the only restrictions on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other are imposed by our own minds."

The Uchiha sneered, but his features softened at his friend's words.

"Please. Spare me from your pretentious lectures at least this time. Let's get started, we don't have much time left."

-v-v-v-  
 _  
 **A week earlier, back in Konohagakure...**_

Neji focused his gaze on the moon high up in the sky, locking his hands behind his back as he looked out the window in the guest room of the Uchiha estate. It was deep night out there; without his dōjutsu activated, he could barely see a thing in the yard outside, for the lights of the street were barely visible from his current position and the place itself wasn't very well lit – probably because some things here were still under construction, the ninja guessed.

It was awfully quiet, too. Normally, he used to enjoy silence and tranquility prior to his death. But now... After finishing her tale about everything he'd missed in the last few years, Hinata had been almost completely mute for a few hours by now, both during the dinner and now that she was sitting in the chair in the corner of the spacious room, carefully knitting a bloody red scarf without looking away from her handwork – the only thing she cared to take shortest breaks for from time to time was, for some reason, activating her Byakugan – probably to simply check the space around them, because she shut it down in a matter of seconds every time before returning to the monotonous work that seemed to somewhat calm her down, at least for a while.

Yet still it was undeniable that she was becoming more and more nervous with each passing hour, and the strangest thing about her behavior was that she completely refused to tell Neji the reason behind her anxious state no matter how many times he asked her about it. He was smart enough to have figured out that she was afraid of talking about it aloud for some reason – most likely because of the sannin who was still inside the house, reading some scrolls down in the basement and, without a doubt, somehow observing their movements with great attention, although never showing up himself. Possibly listening to them, too...

Activating his own Byakugan, Neji took a stealthy look across the room, instantly spotting a couple snakes that were watching his sister without pause. Did they belong to Sasuke? Having scouted the area, Hinata was aware of their presence, without a doubt, and considering how uncomfortable she appeared to be right now, these were probably Orochimaru's.

Then...

He let out a tired sigh, thus making the glass of the window slightly fogged up and then quickly writing on it a single word with his finger:

 _Escape?_

Making sure that the kanji was readable with his dōjutsu, Hyūga coughed, covering the sign with his body so that the snakes wouldn't see it and then saying:

"Hinata-sama, please, take a look," he knocked on the glass with his fingernail to draw her attention. "I think it would be a wonderful idea to plant your favorite flowers down there. What do you think? _Do we need it_?"

He could see that she gave him a perplexed look before frowning and, seeing as he wasn't going to move away to let her see it, she activated her own eyes. Her lack of reaction was a pleasant surprise – Hinata clearly had read his message, yet there was no sign of emotion on her face aside from a small polite smile she gave to his nape.

"Yes... Yes, I think that's just what we need, nii-san."

He sighed in relief, quickly wiping the window with his sleeve and turning around, maintaining a neutral expression himself.

"Shall we go and buy them now? Also, I think you are spending too much time indoors for your own good, a walk would be good for your health, don't you think so?"

Pretending to weight his words out for a few seconds, she smiled and then nodded.

"Sure, that's a wonderful idea. I'll go and warn Orochimaru-san. Please, take a cloak with some hood from the wardrobe below – no, actually, two of them, and wait for me at the door. I'll be there in no time!"

Giving her back a worried glance as she walked downstairs, Neji nodded, doing as she'd told him.

Apparently, either the Snake Sannin felt completely in control of the situation, or the Hyūga really underestimated his sister's acting skills, but anyhow, she showed up in just a minute, carrying a crumpled blank piece of paper in her hand as well as a single pencil put below her wrist and a silver bracer that rested on it – these were the only things she was going to take with her, it seemed.

"Let's go, shall we?" She smiled at him, putting her cloak on and adjusting the mask on her face.

"As you wish, Hinata-sama," he replied, making sure that his hood hid his face well enough – they had yet to come up with a good idea how to announce his return to the village, or rather to the world of living, and until then, it wouldn't be any good if somebody accidentally spotted him on the streets.

Enjoying the refreshing chilly wind as they walked towards the flower shop owned by Yamanaka family, Neji kept his Byakugan activated, watching Hinata as carefully as he could, afraid to miss a sign coming from her.

It took her a few minutes to finally unwrap the piece of paper and quickly write on it:

 _Snake is following; find Kiba and Shino; kill it; leave the village asap. Orochimaru!_

The Hyūga didn't react, waiting half a minute before saying,

"Don't you think it would be a good idea to get your old teammates, Kiba and Shino? Perhaps they are not asleep yet, and it would be nice to talk to someone from the past," he suggested, thus indirectly telling her that he had read the note.

Hinata nodded slowly, hiding the paper in her sleeve.

"Yes, it's indeed a splendid idea, nii-san. But, uh... I think they should be on duty tonight. Although they both mentioned that they wanted to visit Kurenai-sensei before departing. We could catch up with them there, it's not far away."

Neji smirked. Never before could he have imagined that working together with his formerly hapless sister would be such a pleasure. She had become an amazing kunoichi, and even just by how cunning she was now, he could tell that she easily lived up to the fame of the Uchiha clan's name. It was still a bit hard for him to admit, but Sasuke had indeed made this once fragile flower bloom into something strong and beautiful.  
And by this alone, the Uchiha had earned more than his personal respect.

"Sounds good. Lead the way, please. I find it a little hard to navigate here these days."

* * *

 _Present time._

Giving one final glance to the unstable looking rift in space behind his back that led to the dimension with the giant moon which he and Naruto had created a few years ago clearly visible on the unnatural purple sky, Sasuke stepped towards the huge altar in front of himself, reaching out but stopping his hand an inch away from its cold ancient surface.

His eyes then moved to the inky sky of his own world – it was late in the evening at the moment, and everything around was awfully quiet. Of course, this hall was sacred and absolutely forbidden from entering for the cultists – they couldn't even assume that somebody would be able to slip inside not on a ceremonial day, let alone go to check the place without the permission of their patriarch. In other words, it was a safe place for his corpse to rest for a while... Hidan made it clear that nobody would appear here in the next few weeks for sure.

 _What a wonderful_ _place to die_ , he thought grimly, closing his eyes and taking one last and deep breath. _Don't fail me, Kakashi... Everything depends on the two of us now. No... Actually, Naruto shouldn't fail at protecting the village either. So I guess it's all about Team Seven again, huh..._

It was a bit strange, but he hesitated. Of course, he knew that there was no other way around. Nobody else could do what he was about to do. And even if his seemingly perfect plan was to turn a failure... If this was the price for their world's and, more importantly, his family's survival, he was more than ready to pay for it with everything he had.

After all, this was what he'd desired back then, wasn't it? Just like Itachi always had been, right now, Sasuke himself was in the shadows, completely alone and ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of peace.

 _Can you see me right now, Itachi...? We'll meet again soon enough..._

He bit his lip to the point of getting the brief bitter taste of his own blood, clenching his fists, suddenly feeling angry at himself. He couldn't hope to defeat Kaguya's spirit while feeling so weak and sentimental here. Therefore...

He needed to get rid of his emotions. He was already a dead man, after all, wasn't he?

The ninja smirked. With this suddenly relieving thought, he clenched his sword with his left hand and then placed his other palm on the altar, instantly covering it with the unique permanent seal of his own design – well, actually, Karin and Naruto had helped him develop it, to be fair.

The rift behind his back closed the moment his body hit the stone floor of the hall.

Sasuke opened his eyes in a second, quickly squinting at the annoying white light that surrounded him. He tried to stride forward, only to realize it that he was, in fact, floating in the middle of milky infinity with nobody visible around.

Was he... dead? Was this the afterlife? Or rather Kaguya's mind... or soul...?

"Where the hell am I...?" the man mumbled to himself, and, for the lack of any other option, tapping into his chakra and trying to activate his dōjutsu.

Surprisingly enough, it worked, although the sight didn't change at all – there was still nobody and nothing around. However, what he found pretty interesting was the lack of the common feeling... It wasn't very notable in the last few years for him, because his chakra reserves were nowadays truly immense compared to his childhood, yet still...

Keeping his eyes activated didn't take any chakra from him!

The Uchiha smirked. It seemed like this was sort of a mindscape, after all, just like Naruto had explained it to him. Either that, or this was just some sort of hallucination but, in either case...  
He tapped deeper, draining the small pieces of the tailed beasts' chakra from his system as well as the chakra of Gedō Mazō.

Sasuke gasped then, eyeing the nine black orbs that appeared behind his back as his skin took the unhealthy greenish shade and his long hair became snowy white.

"Oh welp," he muttered, trying to infuse even more chakra.

Yes, it was exactly as Naruto had told him – no matter what kind of chakra he'd had in the real world, it turned to be endless in here. Therefore, while he was present in this bizarre reality, whatever it actually was, his power was on par with that of Madara in his prime... or perhaps even greater.

So at least one of his calculations justified itself. This was good... Even though this power was temporary, at least now he would be able to put up a good fight. The question was... with whom?

From what it looked like, Kaguya was nowhere around to be seen. How was he supposed to search her? Logically, in an infinite space, possessing infinite power, he sould be able to summon her somehow. But, again, how to do that...?

"It looks like you could use some help, Sasuke."

He flinched as his eyes widened in horror at the awfully familiar voice. The young man quickly turned around, backing off the next second as he saw the person whom he'd never dreamed of ever meeting again.

"Itachi? How on earth...! Am I seeing visions now...?"

He looked as alive as ever here in this realm, and it was clear that this wasn't an artificial Edo Tensei body like the last time they'd met. However...

"So many questions right away... I can see that you don't change even though you look a lot older now, little brother." Itachi smiled softly, looking around himself slightly curiously. "We're not on Earth right now, as you could have noticed. Actually... I have no idea where we are. But I would assume that some small portion of my chakra remaining in the eyes you now possess somehow allowed me to take this form thanks to you, whether you did this willingly or not. At least I don't see any other explanation."

Sasuke gasped, almost slapping his face at the belated realization.

"Of course... any chakra I had back in our world is limitless now. You're probably right; when I tested my limits, I must have accidentally released your chakra as well. After all, I was planning to die. I thought about meeting you, too. That must have served the trigger."

Itachi shrugged with indifference.

"Yeah... sounds about right. So, what exactly is this place?"

The younger brother frowned.

"I suppose we are both creations of pure chakra as of now, then..."

"Probably." Itachi gave him a searching gaze, eyeing the ninja up and down. "You look approximately my age... How old are you?"

"I'm twenty one," snapped the white haired Uchiha, shaking his head. "So, yeah, I guess we are both the same age now. But it doesn't matter right now, Itachi. I've come here to end the evil that's been corrupting our clan and our entire world for centuries. I–"

"I'm aware of that," suddenly interrupted him the other shinobi, making Sasuke give him a confused look. "I possess the memories of everything you've seen in the last few years, it seems."

"Ah...," Sasuke frowned, nodding. "Of course. This chakra was inside my eyes all along, after all."

"Indeed," Itachi continued, "What I asked you was if you have any idea what this place actually is. And what are you going to do from now on, too."

His brother sighed.

"Let's see..." He formed a few hand signs, closing his eyes, but then flinching as another idea hit him. "Wait. Itachi, can you use your techniques here? Like, _any_ technique?"

The man paused for a second, apparently testing his capabilities before replying:

"I think so. Why?"

Sasuke grinned.

"Then I guess I know why does she not show up. Initially, I had planned to revive you with Orochimaru's help, but Orochimaru told me it was impossible."

"Good," Itachi nodded calmly. "I don't want to return."

"What? But... why? Surely, I could revive you now that I have the access to your chakra by sacrificing one of my eyes as a portion of your flesh, so–"

"No, little brother. I'd rather you don't."

"But _why_?!"

Itachi lowered his eyes sadly before uttering softly:

"I have no place in your world, Sasuke. I've seen what you've seen, so you should be able to understand... I've served my purpose. I think I have deserved rest. The future is up to you now, and I... I don't want to come back."

This time the younger sibling didn't argue, frowning and staring at his beloved brother thoughtfully for a while.

For the first time in his life, Sasuke felt like he finally understood this man. Having suffered as much as he did, with his life being endlessly ravaged by their world since the day he was born, Itachi simply didn't see a place for himself among them. Death was something he'd craved... perhaps for years before Sasuke'd killed him – it was his redemption and his salvation.

Yes... He simply had no interest in keeping living his life. Could someone blame him for it, really? To him, real world was utter and literal hell...

"I see," finally said Sasuke, clearing his throat as he suddenly felt himself on the verge of crying, but for the first time ever, he didn't feel angry at his brother's decision. "Regardless, there was a good reason why I wanted to revive you."

"Oh?" It seemed like his last line made Itachi snap out of his thought, meeting his troubled gaze. "And what reason was that?"

"Totsuka's blade. I wanted to retrieve it in order to seal Kaguya away. This was my initial plan."

Itachi frowned then.

"Hn... I suppose you are truly lucky, Sasuke. I wouldn't have been able to give you the blade, for it is bound to my chakra and to my soul. I did it so that nobody would ever be able to get their hands on this weapon, because it is too powerful for a mortal to possess."

It made sense, of course. If it ever ended up in the hands of someone like Orochimaru, the consequences would be absolutely unpredictable.

"I see. But now that you're here... you said you can use all of your abilities. Can you use the blade, too?"

He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. That's why I told you that you are lucky."

Sasuke smirked and then laughed aloud, almost shaking under the sudden wave of joy.

"Just like I thought! Ha! Can you hear us, you bitch?" He laughed again, turning around and looking into nowhere. "Is this why you are so scared to show your face? Because you know that it's over, am I right?"

His laughter died out as the tall woman appeared right in front of him, her face just a couple inches away from his own.

"No... You're wrong, Indra."

Sasuke gasped, suddenly feeling unable to move.

"You–!"

She caressed his cheek gently.

"Calm down, child. I won't hurt you... even though I probably should for how much of a stubborn brat you were."

Her smile was so genuinely kind and motherly that it almost made the Uchiha feel delirious as he tried to raise his hands, but failed again.

"What... what have you done to me...?"

"Nothing at all," she looked at Itachi, narrowing her white eyes at the man who, Sasuke could feel, had already activated his Susano, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to strike. "I know why you came here, but it will be no good. Stop fighting, and perhaps I'll let you get out... alive."

"Sasuke, I really think you should listen to her now," suddenly said Itachi, raising his voice a bit.

"What the...?"

"You are forgetting, again. Analyzes require a calm mind. This is her realm... she can do anything here, clearly. If you want to take her down by bluntly attacking her, it would never work."

He gritted his teeth. Itachi was right as always, of course. But now that his nemesis was right in front of him... he was beginning to panic, probably.

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying to calm down as he said quietly:

"Fine... Release me now, will you?"

She smiled again, but now it didn't look as creepy and shocking at all. In fact, it looked very natural... and oddly familiar.

"Of course I will. Just be a good boy, please. At least just this once... Indra."

Finally able to move his limbs again, Sasuke flew a few yards backwards, eyeing Kaguya's image carefully with caution.

She now looked a lot more humane than the last time they'd met. Her skin had the normal white shade, if only a bit pale; she had no horns, and all in all her face and her body seemed to be a lot more expressive now than before. Was this because Black Zetsu wasn't anywhere around?

"I take it you've known some of my previous incarnations, huh?" he asked just to break the awkward silence, even though the answer was pretty much obvious which she confirmed it with a light nod.

"Of course I did, Indra. I was the one who raised you, after all."

He gave her a deadpan stare.

"What...?"

She smiled warmly, though not moving.

"You don't remember it, but you never had a mother, for Hagoromo found you and your brother in one of the settlements I destroyed as a punishment for their rebellion. And because Hagoromo himself was too busy trying to find a way to defy me by using your brother Ashura, I was taking care of you meanwhile, trying to give you a proper upbringing. Why do you think I always cooperated with _your_ incarnations in the past?"

This was new, but not really surprising. As far as Sasuke could remember, neither Ashura's nor Indra's first incarnations looked anything like Hagoromo. And the connection between Indra and Kaguya had always been pretty obvious.

So, the Sage probably bestowed his power upon them, children of some commoners, and hence why it's been degrading with each new generation – it was unnatural to their kind, after all, so that explained it.

Byakugan, however...

"What about the others?" he suddenly asked, and Kaguya looked at him quizzically.

"The others...?"

"Me and Ashura were not of your kind, I get it. But you had two sons, didn't you? Hagoromo's brother... Hamura. He inherited your eyes... Didn't he?"

She smiled once again, nodding at him.

"Correct."

"Then I guess all the Byakugan users in our world are his descendants."

She nodded again.

"I would assume so as well."

"But Hagoromo told us that Hamura and the rest of your kind went to the moon! They wanted to leave our world for good, protecting it from your possible return!"

Kaguya sighed sadly, shaking her head slightly.

"This is only partly true, I believe."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her.

"What? Are you going to try to convince me that you were a good girl yourself all along?"

She giggled childishly, and it was so creepy that the Uchiha felt shivers going down his spine. Despite her seemingly friendly attitude and her silky voice, this woman was truly scary.

"No... not at all. I am not going to deny that I wanted to do what I wanted to do. But there was a very important reason behind it... A reason neither of my sons was ever able to see."

He frowned, and so did Itachi who was silently listening to their conversation.

"So, there is some outer threat to our world, after all?"

The goddess looked at him in surprise.

"You have figured it out again? I am impressed."

"Again...?"

"Your first incarnation did. No matter... Originally, I was a princess in my home world, Indra. My father sent me to conquer yours with the help of our people... the people who cherished me and adored me with their hearts. Their loyalty was never a question to me, so, naturally, when I fell in love with someone from _your_ kind, they started considering that man their leader as well. Things were going good... for some time."

"What happened?" suddenly asked Itachi who appeared to be really curious all of sudden.

"Treachery, of course. Some people of your kind ambushed my husband a few months before Hagoromo and Hamura were born, and so started a great war. And this was when I began to loathe your people almost as much as I loathe my own. However... your civilization was and still is a very young one. You still have a chance to follow the right path. Therefore, I decided to become the ruler of your world myself... with the help of Shinjū's power and with the assistance of my sons, too."

Sasuke hesitated for a while before nodding.

"Yeah. It's your kind, isn't it? They want our world for themselves."

Kaguya smiled and cocked your head.

"Shrewd, aren't you, my child?"

He winced.

"I'm not your child. Tell me why did you want to take all the chakra from everyone. Tell me why did Hamura decide to isolate his people on the moon and if he really did this, why are there Byakugan users in our world?"

She sighed, taking the lotus pose right midair and crossing her hands on her chest.

"So many questions at once... This man is right," she looked at Itachi. "You never change. But it's not like we have a reason to hurry, for time doesn't exist here. Concerning your first question...Using this energy called chakra is the only way they can reach your world. Without it, there would be nobody who could ever open a gateway for them. And the only way to ensure your world's safety forever would be sealing all the chakra away, as you probably realized by now. So I wanted to seal it all in myself."

"And to become an eternal tyrant for us all?" asked Itachi, to which she shrugged indifferently. "That's not the wisest thing to do."

"This would be far better than total extermination, don't you think so? And this is what my kind is going to do with yours eventually, without a doubt. As soon as someone mad enough will find a way to let them come there."

Sasuke's face paled as he was beginning to grasp the full picture.

"Were there such people in your age?"

Kaguya frowned, nodding at him slowly.

"Let us go in the order you set yourself, Indra. Speaking of Hamura... Unlike Hagoromo, he was always quite pragmatic. He was no idealist at all. He didn't think that our two kinds would ever be able to live side by side with each other peacefully. That's why he decided to go a separate way... but not everyone agreed with him."

"Not everyone...? You mean Black Zetsu? The jerk you kept in your sleeve while we fought."

She sighed, shaking her head.

"No. He was just a creature of mine... A useful one, but he is irrelevant at this point. I am talking about Hamura's daughter, for instance... A fine girl who inherited her grandmother's great talent and wonderful looks," she gave Sasuke a light grin. "Do you not remember her at all?"

"Why would I?" muttered the man, frowning. Her smile was really, really annoying right now...

"Because she was your wife, Indra. You two gave the beginning to the clans you call Hyūga and Uchiha in this current age."

Yes, this was definitely making sense right now. Hamura's daughter was Hinata's ancestor who inherited Kaguya's power. That was the reason behind the connection between Kaguya and his wife...

"Unfortunately, her brother was a heavy supporter of Hamura's idea of separation. Just like you and Ashura, he found a way to attain immortality through the cycle of reincarnation. Eventually, though, having watched the way your people lived in your world, a lot of Hamura's followers started to feel jealous of the nature and luxuries you had while they were forced to struggle in order to survive on the lifeless piece of rock my tomb was. When Hamura's daughter left the moon for you, Indra, her brother became furious. In the wake of his hatred for humans, he joined those who wanted to conquer your world, and eventually they discovered what was sealed inside the moon."

"You mean yourself," said Itachi.

"Precisely," she nodded. "They realized that only by reviving me could they reunite with the rest of their kind from other worlds... and in our motherland. And so Hamura's son, their leader, decided to use his sister as a vessel for my power. And yet he failed, and you, Indra, as well as Ashura, created a spell to protect your planet from them, preventing any possible invasion for centuries. It took them almost a millennia to figure out a way to come down from the moon, but they have figured it out anyway. And now they are about to complete the ritual."

"Toneri... Is he her brother's incarnation?" She nodded. "Don't you support their idea, though? They're going to revive you, so everything would go according to your plan. You should be happy about it, shouldn't you?" asked Sasuke bitterly.

She sighed, shaking her head.

"My power, Indra. Not myself. They don't want to revive _me_. They are going to use your wife's current incarnation as the vessel for my chakra, and then they will force her to open portals to other dimensions, letting countless armies fill your world. This is their ultimate intention."

The three of them became silent as Ssauke was rapidly thinking on what to do. If Kaguya was telling the truth, their world was in critical danger right now. But, could he really trust her...?

"I want to read your memories," he said then, for this was the most logical thing he could do right now.

She blinked at him, looking at Sasuke with a slight sneer before slowly uttering:

"That... is acceptable. Go ahead and use your eye's power on me. I have nothing to hide, especially since we are all trapped here for eternity."

He hesitated, giving Itachi a questioning gaze, but his brother only shrugged.

"If she wanted to do something to you, she had the opportunity."

The younger brother nodded. This was a fair point, so he approached the ageless woman and touched her forehead, noticing belatedly that her Rinne Sharingan wasn't there either at the moment.

Endless stream of alien memories filled his mind the next moment, showing him countless pictures from various ages and places he'd never seen, of people he'd never met. Some of them looked distantly familiar, but most of it was completely foreign to him...

Slightly stunned by the amount of information that was beginning to tear his mind apart, he tried to find the few key memories he needed to confirm her words. It took him a few minutes – or perhaps hours? He wasn't really sure – to finally reach it, but then he moved his hand away, panting heavily and wincing in pain that pierced his skull like a burning sword.

"Now you can imagine what I feel every day, child," she gave him a sorry smile, patting his head lightly.

"Yeah...," he paused and gulped soundly. "Fine, you told us the truth. Yet still... I don't want you ruling our world. What are we going to do?"

The woman shrugged.

"You tell me, Indra. I ran out of options very long ago."

He frowned, lowering his eyes.

"Could I get out of here?"

She nodded.

"Perhaps you could, but it would come with a price."

"Name it."

"My own freedom."

He looked up at her, narrowing his eyes at her impassive, dead serious face.

"If I set you free... I want you to promise to give up on your plan of total domination."

"In favor of what, if I may ask?"

He smirked and narrowed his eyes at her.

"I suggest a compromise. Let's put it this way: I'll take care of Toneri and his brethren. As soon as I'm finished on the moon and my family is safe, you'll leave our kind alone, staying there in charge of the descendants of your people. We will cooperate... working together to achieve peace in our worlds and to protect Earth."

She frowned, locking her fingers in front of herself and pursing her lips, giving Sasuke a long, estimating look.

"And for how long do you think this truce would last?"

"For as long as we'll be able to maintain it."

Kaguya sighed, shaking her head again.

"This is a very dangerous game, Indra... But I accept your offer nonetheless. I would have one condition as well, though."

"I'm listening."

She gave him a very serious look before saying quietly:

"Neither of us will be allowed to retrieve Shinjū's power from the world where you and Ashura sealed it."

Sasuke's brow cocked at the unexpected demand.

"Oh? And why so generous all of sudden?"

The woman snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Generous? Make no mistake, Indra. This is not a gesture of generosity. This is a precaution."

"Precaution, huh...?"

"You and Ashura have proven to be more powerful than I. No matter how much power I gather, you would always find a way to defeat me. However, if you or him claim this kind of power, I'll be at a huge disadvantage. No... there will be no parity at all."

This was ridiculous. So she was afraid of him and Naruto? It seemed to be the case, but somehow it didn't make the Uchiha feel self satisfied. Instead... it actually gave him an opportunity to do something very selfish... something he had dreamed of for too long.

"I want to take a precaution as well, then."

She frowned at Sasuke's self assured smirk.

"How interesting. I'm listening."

"Itachi...," he turned to his brother, meeting the gaze of his notably troubled black eyes. "If you had a reason to live, would you agree to return to our world?"

"You want Totsuka's blade, after all," instantly replied the older Uchiha, to which Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. I also think it would be fair for you to get to try living a normal life. And with you at my side, I'd be sure that we have a way to deal with this granny of mine should she suddenly go insane or get a dementia."

Itachi closed his eyes and shook his head, letting out a sign of resignation.

"Fine... I suppose you have a point, Sasuke. This is a convincing reason to come back. But," he looked at his beloved sibling thoughtfully before uttering, "I'll stay on the moon."

"What...?"

"I'll need to stay close to this woman in order to be able to react in time should anything bad happen. Besides, I really don't think that coming back to our society would ever work for me."

"But–"

He suddenly felt so helpless, especially understanding that Itachi was absolutely right in everything. But, come to think about it... when they would be done with this threat, he would be able to visit the moon whenever he wanted. This was far better than any other option without Itachi alive... wasn't it? And this way, his brother might finally find his happiness... and get the well deserved reward for everything he'd been through, even though in a different world (literally, this time around.)

"Alright... that's fair enough. So," Sasuke turned to Kaguya again, "You'll revive the two of us."

Her face darkened.

"I'm afraid this is not quite possible. I can't revive either of you, Indra," she added before he could interrupt her. "The best I can do is to link the chakra of the three of us together. But we can't get out of here on our owns. Somebody has to revive you, your brother or myself... in your world. So, I'm afraid your ambitious plan is doomed, after all."

Sasuke's mouth curved into a grin of amusement at her words.

"Not quite, old hag... not quite."

-v-v-v-

 ** _A week earlier, not far away from Konohagakure..._**

The four ninjas and one dog ran through the deep forest down the path which under different circumstances could have risen nostalgic feelings in Hinata's heart. But ever since the moment Akamaru killed off Orochimaru's little spy, all of them felt too nervous and perhaps even scared to stop even for a moment, trying to get away from the Uchiha estate as far as possible. The fact that none of them felt or saw anybody following them was even more disturbing for some reason...

Had they managed to fool the Sannin and Naruto, after all? Had both of them yet to notice that the four of them were missing? Or...

The kunoichi gritted her teeth, taking the mask off and throwing it somewhere into the darkness of the woods, finally enjoying the feeling of fresh air filling her lungs, closing her eyes in joy for a second.

"I guess it could work as a diversion, but won't you need this when we come back?" asked Kiba curiously, to which she frowned, looking backwards with her dōjutsu one more time.

"I don't know...," she replied honestly, biting her lip. "Whatever is to come, I have this uneasy feeling, Kiba-kun... It will change everything."

The brown haired man snorted, rolling his eyes and trying to look cool.

"It sounds scary when you put it like this. Relax, everything is gonna be fine. Sasuke's not an idiot, he won't fuck up."

The corners of her lips twitched ever so slightly.

"I hope you're right..."

"He is right. If anything, it is our concern not to fail in this. I still think we shouldn't go there," mused Shino without looking at either of them.

"Where are we going anyway?" muttered Neji, frowning at their small argument. It was so weird to see Hinata virtually being the leader of their squad... making decisions and ignoring her teammate's objections like that. And at the same time, she looked so natural in this position... As though she'd always been meant for this. Was this really Hiashi's fault to have suppressed her true self for so long? Or was this just another tragedy cause by the cruelty of their world and by a few humans' arrogant and foolish mistake...?

"The hidden Temple of Jashin. The shortest route to reach it would be going over sea by using a boat, so our current destination is Nami no Kuni. We'll make a stop there for a few hours, I think...," Hinata smiled, lowering her eyes dreamily as the nostalgia finally hit her. "I'd also like to visit a few old friends there if you boys don't mind. Who knows... this may be my last chance to do it."

None of them argued this time, for she was pretty much stating the obvious. From what it seemed, they were all going straight down the highway to hell, after all.

"The town is pretty close. How many hours are we planning to spend there?" asked Neji.

Hinata narrowed her eyes at the horizon.

"Well, there are no signs of anybody chasing us yet, so I think it would be safe to stay there until dawn. Don't you agree?" she gave him a questioning, slightly sheepish look, and all of sudden Neji also felt something very familiar – even after all these years, she still looked up to him. Some things never changes, it seemed...

The Hyūga smirked in joy. Somehow, he just _knew_ that this adventure would not end badly. After all, he hadn't returned from the afterlife just to witness another tragedy, had he?

* * *

 **Now then, a few things regarding myself and the future of this story/other stories.**

 **First of all, the reason why it took me so much time to return to working on this story was my real life issues, my family life, specifically.**

 **Secondly, I am planning to finish this story and to rewrite the first part of it so that it would match my current level of skill, but I'm not sure how long it would take me, for I have many other ideas concerning writing on my mind. I'll be honest, it will highly depend on you guys. If I see the interest (reviews and all), I'll work faster, I promise. If I don't, then I'll give the priority to my new ideas - no offense.**

 **And finally, thank you for the amazing support you gave me so far and for staying with me for so long. Hopefully, you'll find this chapter and the ending of this story (there are 5 chapters left btw) enjoyable.**

 **Until next time, guys! Next chapter: Toneri and Hinata!**


End file.
